Eagles shrug off disastrous first half to beat Giants
Tight end snares two TD passes as Eagles stay alive in NFC East race
PHILADELPHIA » We’ll never know Giants quarterback Eli Manning as intimately as the teammates who have been at his side.
Eagles practice squad quarterback Kyle Lauletta, the product of Downingtown East, put Manning in an interesting light with a gem of an anecdote about what the 38-year-old veteran was like off the field.
It was the summer of 2018 and Lauletta, a fourth-round pick of the Giants, was still a bit starstruck when the team jetted to Detroit for a joint practice with the Lions.
“We went out to dinner,” Lauletta said. “The quarterbacks and the offensive linemen went together and one of the rookie traditions was to pay for the meal. Eli said, ‘Kyle, make sure you bring your wallet. This one’s on you. You and (rookie guard) Will Hernandez. You’re going to split it.’”
The offensive linemen were bottomless pits. No expense was spared with the choice of beverages. At that point Lauletta began wondering if the establishment would take a personal check in addition to his credit card.
“I’m like, ‘oh, my gosh,’ watching all that,” Lauletta said. “I’m getting nervous because it’s getting toward the end of the meal. And then the bill comes out and there’s two bills, one for me and one for Hernandez. And it was like $27,000. And I’m sitting there and I’m like, sweating.”
To make the long story short, it was a phony bill.
“Eli said, ‘I’m just messing you Kyle,’” Lauletta said. “He had called in and set the whole thing up.”
It’s not unlike the way Manning played football in his prime. No one was better setting up big plays, a list that includes among others the gamewinning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in Super Bowl XLII.
That earned Manning one of two Super Bowl MVP awards.
Manning obviously isn’t the guy he was in the Super Bowls. He entered the Monday night game against the Eagles with a record of 116-116 in the regular season, including 10-20 against the Eagles.
It didn’t look like Manning would start another game this season after the Giants replaced him with rookie Daniel Jones after an 0-2 start.
But Jones injured an ankle last week in his eighth straight loss and head coach Pat Shurmur and the Giants decided to roll with Manning.
“I’ll check in with him,” Lauletta said. “I was close to him. I met his family. We spent a lot of time together so I’ll just kind of catch up with him and see how he’s doing and see how their families are doing. This could be his last game. So, I’m sure he’ll put it all out there.”
It’s safe to say every Giants player over the past 16 seasons has an Eli Manning story. Some funnier than others.
“That’s something I’ll always remember,” said Lauletta, who grew up an Eagles fan in Exton. “He was a pretty witty guy, very creative. He always had fun with it and was fun to be around.”
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The Eagles scratched Derek Barnett, second on the team with 4.5 sacks, due to a shoulder injury. Vinny Curry started in place of Barnett.
The other starters deactivated – wide receiver Nelson Agholor, who has a knee injury and running back Jordan Howard, for the fourth straight game due to a stinger.
The Eagles started both Miles Sanders and Boston Scott at running back instead of three receivers.
Defensive end Shareef Miller, linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill (concussion) and offensive linemen Nate Herbig and Sua Opeta also were scratched.
The Giants scratched Jones (ankle), running back Wayne Gallman, cornerback Corey Ballentine, offensive linemen Chad Slade and Eric Smith, and tight ends Rhett Ellison and Evan Engram.
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At the opening kickoff Monday, the Eagles are six-point favorites over the Redskins next Sunday at FedEx Field.
The Redskins (3-10) are coming off a 20-15 loss to the Packers in Green Bay.