Struggling Eagles host Giants
Enough of this.
If the Eagles are going to make a respectable showing after their first Super Bowl title, it’s time to do so.
They have lost three of their past four, turn over the ball too often and can’t make big defensive stops.
They are heavily injured physically and, perhaps psychologically, by a 4-6 record as they host the New York Giants (3-7) on Sunday.
“It’s uncharted territory a little bit,” coach Doug Pederson says. “I think the guys have really handled it well.
“They’re disappointed, they’re frustrated, quite frankly, as we all are. We haven’t played up to the caliber that we’re capable of playing.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us, and we’re not going to do the same. We just have to come to work ready and practice, and prepare, and as they say, try to go 1-0 each week.”
Six weeks of 1-0 might be good enough to win the NFC East, in which they trail Washington by two games and Dallas by one. The Eagles have two games left with the Redskins and one with the Cowboys, to whom they have lost in Philly.
New York has won two in a row to temporarily quiet the social media and tabloid complaints about Eli Manning.
The veteran quarterback has proven that given some time to throw — the O-line has vastly improved the past two weeks — he still can produce. And he has talented teammates in Saquon Barkley, Odell Beckham Jr., Evan Engram and Sterling Shepard.
“I think we’re running the ball better than we did, so I feel like we’re playing better football, but we got to continue doing that,” Manning says. “They’re a good team, they’re a good defense, they got a good front four and they’re a little banged-up in the secondary, but they'll have a good plan and we just got to go execute.”
The weekend began with the Thanksgiving Day tripleheader.
At New Orleans, Drew Brees threw four touchdown passes to inexperienced receivers and the Saints (10-1) won their
10th consecutive game with a 31-17 victory over Atlanta (4-7) that eliminated the Falcons from contention in the NFC South.
At Dallas, Amari Cooper had a 90-yard touchdown catch while finishing with 180 yards receiving and two scores and Dallas pulled even with Washington atop the NFC East at 6-5 with a 31-23 Thanksgiving victory over the Redskins.
At Detroit, Chase Daniel set career highs with 230 yards passing and two touchdowns to keep Chicago (8-3) rolling with a 23-16 win over the Lions (4-7).
Off this week are the Chiefs and Rams, the final byes of the season. They are probably exhausted after that 54-51 Monday night affair in which Los Angeles improved to 10-1 and Kansas City fell to 9-2.