LC grad Judge has Giants on the rise
EAST RUTHERFORD » Finally.
They had to clean house twice as their fans endured cruel and unusual punishment, but the Giants look like a franchise that is on the rise again.
Head coach Joe Judge, a graduate of Lansdale Catholic, did something Sunday that neither of the last two Giants coaches could muster in the previous three seasons: Beat the Eagles.
It was undoubtedly the Giants’ most important win since they last took down the Eagles in 2016, some 1,470 days and eight straight losses ago. New York had not played a meaningful November game since it made the playoffs four years ago.
That’s partly because the NFC East is the NFL’s worst division, but give credit where credit is due. Judge has assembled a formidable coaching staff and gotten his players to buy into a system that works, and that’s why they’re in a position to make a late run during the first year in charge for the former New England Patriots and Alabama assistant coach.
“Joe’s been a part of a lot of winning programs, so all we had to do was buy in,” safety Jabrill Peppers said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. A lot of times it was more execution things, and when you see how
close you are and then it’s a play here or a play there, it kind of keeps you wanting to keep pushing and champing at the bit. Stay bought in, because it’s going to turn, and we felt that.”
For the first half of the season, fans had to settle for the eye test as the Giants showed improvement but more often than not came up short. Prior to Sunday, Daniel Jones was 1-16 as a starting quarterback against all NFL teams besides Washington, whom the Giants swept this season for their other two victories.
Now, through patience after a condensed offseason and the development of young players, fans should feel tangible validity to what Judge is building
nocking off the firstplace Eagles means that with seven games to go, the Giants have a legitimate chance to become the first team in history to make the playoffs after starting 0-5.
“I see the same fight in our team that we’ve had the entire year,” Judge said. “These guys haven’t blinked, they haven’t wavered. We keep the em
phasis on improving, that’s really the most important thing for us. I’ve seen a lot of that continuously throughout the year. Really no different this week.”
For starters, Jones has responded masterfully from his maddening performance against Tampa Bay two weeks ago.
The second-year Duke product avoided a turnover for the second straight game after coughing the ball up at least once in 20 of his first 21 career games. But he still played aggressively and was extremely efficient against the Eagles, completing a career-best 75 percent of his passes for 244 yards on 28 attempts.
No throw was bigger than Jones’ sideline heave to Darius Slayton for 40 yards with 4:10 remaining. That was the second play of the Giants’ last drive, leading to a crucial field goal for the 27-17 final margin, essentially putting the game out of reach.
It was a gutsy call by offensive coordinator Jason Garret and involved a play-action fake that apparently had the Eagles fooled.
“I think that was, first, a great call by Coach Garrett there in that situation,” Jones said. “Obviously they were expecting the run and expecting
us to try to keep the ball on the ground and drain out the clock, and just a matchup there where we had Darius down the field and really I just tried to give him a chance. And you saw the play he made was an incredible one.”
It was all possible because the Giants ran the ball so effectively: 151 yards on 36 carries, the fifth straight game with at least 100. The Giants also became only the second team to rush for three touchdowns against the Eagles since Jim Schwartz took over as defensive coordinator in 2016.
The Giants’ offensive line has made tremendous strides and dominated the line of scrimmage much of the afternoon, which is why the services of Wayne Gallman and Alfred Morris have sufficed in place of injured star Saquon Barkley.
It also helps to have a deceptive element of readoptions with Jones, who added another 64 yards to his team-high total of 384 for the season, including a 34-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
“We’re going to play aggressive with Daniel, and he’s done a heck of a job making plays when we need it and making better decisions throughout the season,” Judge said.
Defensively, the Gi
ants atoned for blowing an 11-point lead with less than minutes left in Philadelphia three weeks ago.
They gave up two Eagles touchdown drives in the third quarter, but most important, the Giants allowed no points in the fourth quarter and held Carson Wentz to 4.8 yards per pass attempt.
“The first game we were kind of vanilla when they went tempo. Cover 3, Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 2 (soft zone coverages),” Peppers said. “This game we had a lot more multiples, and that’s a testament to the coaching staff and putting us in places to excel and giving them looks on the fly while they’re going tempo that they think they’re getting this, but we’re actually doing this. I think that gave them trouble.”
It’s more proof that this coaching staff is devising sound game plans and knows how to adjust. The Giants have focused on neutralizing their opponents’ strengths and jumped out to double-digit leads in each of the past six games.
Entering their bye week, the Giants can genuinely feel good about their development under a coaching staff that is pushing all the right buttons.