Giants’ defense smothers Eagles
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — On a day when the team retired the No. 92 jersey of Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, the New York Giants’ defense appropriately made life miserable for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The defense intercepted Jalen Hurts three times, forced four turnovers overall and held Philadelphia to a season-low in points in beating the errorprone Eagles 13-7 on Sunday afternoon.
It was worthy of Strahan, who had 21 of his 141 career sacks against the Eagles, his most against any team.
“Any time that something like this happens, we want to make the players that played before us proud,” said safety Xavier Mckinney, who had the last of the interceptions. “That’s how we play. We’re going to fight on every down. It was something we saw (the ceremony), and we wanted to go out and dominate.”
The game was the first for the Giants’ offense since the firing of coordinator Jason Garrett on Tuesday. With former Browns coach and senior assistant Freddie Kitchens calling the plays, the offense was held to 264 yards but had the ball 32:02, and did just enough.,
Daniel Jones hit Philadelphia native Chris Myarick with a 1-yard TD pass, and Graham Gano kicked field goals of 35 and 39 yards as the Giants (4-7) ended the Eagles’ two-game winning streak.
The Eagles (5-7) were their own worst enemy. In addition to Hurts’ miscues, running back Boston Scott lost a fumble that Julian Love recovered at the New York 40 with 1:34 to play.
The Eagles, who had their third straight 200-yard game rushing with 208, had one more chance in the final 1:11. They got a first down at the Giants 27 and had to spike the ball.
Hurts. who ran for a teamhigh 77 yards, threw three passes and nearly had Jalen Reagor for a TD on second down with a sideline pass the receiver got his hands on before dropping. A pass to Reagor at the goal line on fourth-and-10 also was incomplete.
“Just two drops that I would say is very uncharacteristic,” Reagor said. “Just got to go through the highs and lows and go on to next week and make the plays.”
Hurts had thrown five interceptions all season until being picked off by cornerback Darnay Holmes, linebacker Tae Crowder and Mckinney. The one by Crowder hurt most, a goal-line pick on the final play of the first half.
“I put us in a bad situation with those turnovers I had in the first half, especially going in with the opportunity to get points before halftime,” said Hurts, who was 14 of 31 for 129 yards and finished with a dismal 17.5 quarterback rating. “It’s something we have to overcome, and we will.”
Scott had scored on a 1-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter to get Philadelphia within 10-7. However, the player who has seven career TDS against the Giants had the big miscue later on.
Giants coach Joe Judge said he spoke to the team about the Strahan jersey retirement.
“When you get a guy being honored like that you don’t want to go out there and lay an egg,” Judge said.
Gano added his longer field goal on a possession lasting 7:22 preceding the Scott fumble for the 13-7 lead.
The Giants built a 3-0 lead on Gano’s 35-yarder in the first quarter. Myarick, who played at Temple, made his first career catch a very productive one midway through the third quarter for the margin of victory.
The defense, which did little against Tom Brady and the Bucs last Monday night, got the team’s first opening-half shutout since December 2018 when it intercepted Hurts twice in the half. It marked the first time the Eagles had not scored in the opening half this season.
Gano also missed from 51 yards, ending a success streak of 12 in a row.
The Giants saw DBS Adoree Jackson (quad) and Holmes (chest) leave the game. Holmes had the first interception.