JUST FOR KICKS
Eagles rookie Jake Elliott nails 61yard field goal as time expires to stun Giants
PHILADELPHIA » Lincoln Financial Field — also the Giants’ House of Horrors in recent years — may have dug a gravestone for the Eagles’ NFC East division rival on Sunday afternoon.
With so much at stake, the Giants believed they could exorcise their demons. They believed that a must-win game was theirs for the taking in a hostile road environment.
Belief persevered the Giants past many shortcomings in Week 3, but ultimately it did not match reality on the final scoreboard.
Rookie Jake Elliott’s miraculous 61-yard field goal as time expired gave the Eagles a wild 27-24 win, dropping the Giants to 0-3, including two losses in the division.
“I was praying that he kicked it short, I was going to be able to run it back and we were going to have that feeling that they had of winning in the last second,” said Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who lined up in the back of the end zone and said the situation reminded him of when he returned a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown playing for LSU in 2013.
“They came out and they fought. They fought to the very, very last second. You have to tip your hat to them. They fought harder than we did.”
Despite a fourth-quarter surge in which the Giants scored 24 points — 21 unanswered — Carson Wentz and the Eagles would not fold nor settle for overtime.
After Giants punter Brad Wing shanked a punt at the Eagles’ 38-yard line, Philadelphia had only 13 seconds on the clock. But it was enough for Wentz to complete a 19-yard pass along the sideline to Alshon Jeffery with one tick left.
“That’s a big kick, man,” Giants receiver Brandon Marshall said. “We’ve got to continue to make plays so it doesn’t come down to that. But this is the National Football League. It comes down to three or four points in the end. They pulled it out today.”
Eli Manning completed 35-of-47 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns. Beckham scored twice to tie the game at 1414 early in the fourth quarter, and by the end the Giants’ offense finally had put together a solid outing, outgaining the Eagles (2-1) in yards, 415-354.
But missed first-half opportunities in Eagles territory, two turnovers and particularly untimely penalties came back to haunt the Giants.
“Everything adds up in this league. The more things you can have in your favor by the time the ballgame’s over, the better chance you have to win,” head coach Ben McAdoo said. “The tempo worked for us as an offense. In the ballgame it helped us, but we had too many formation infractions that hurt, too many penalties. Makes it tough to win that way.”
The Giants have not won in Philadelphia since 2013, and have now lost six of seven to the Eagles dating back to 2014.
Just how dire is their current state of affairs? Since 1990, when the NFL playoffs expanded to 12 teams, only five of 168 teams to start 0-3 went on to make the postseason. The 1998 Buffalo Bills were the last to do so.
“It’s a long season,” Marshall said. “We dug ourself in a hole. It doesn’t feel good, but I’m proud to see my guys hold their heads up high and keep fighting to the very end. This could’ve been a blowout on our end. It didn’t start pretty for us again, and we fought back and we took the lead. We’ve just got to finish it.
“We’re in a tough spot, but offensively we’ve got to continue to do what we started to do today. And if we do that, we’ll be OK. We’ve got a lot of playmakers in this room. We’ve got a lot of guys with high characters. We’ve got a lot of guys that are strong and tough leaders. We’ll be fine.”
After turning the ball over on downs at the Eagles’ 13-yard line late in the third quarter, the Giants showed resolve and urgency in the final 15 minutes.
In a span of 106 seconds early in the fourth quarter, Beckham lifted the Giants from the dead just when it looked like their season was about to combust. First Beckham hauled in a leaping 10-yard touchdown to cut the Eagles’ lead to 147. Then after strong safety Landon Collins forced a fumble on the Eagles’ next play, the Giants recovered. Five plays later, the game was tied on Beckham’s dazzling one-handed catch in the corner of the end zone with 10:53 remaining.
On the ensuing drive, cornerback Janoris Jenkins broke up a third-down pass to Jeffery to force an Eagles punt. Two plays later, the Giants seized their first lead of the season when Manning connected with Sterling Shepard. Sandwiched between two defenders and with no backside help, Shepard broke loose for a 77-yard touchdown that made it 21-14.
Elliott initially tied the game at 24 with a 46-yard field goal with 51 seconds left. His game-winning kick was the longest in the 15-year history of the stadium.
All that drama unfolded after a 7-0 halftime deficit for the Giants in which they botched missed chances.
Despite rushing for only seven yards, their lowest first-half total since 2011 against the Jets, the Giants revealed a relatively viable offensive game plan.
They countered the Eagles’ aggressive and stout pass rush with hurry-up tempo. Manning threw quick slants, out routes and screens. Marshall (eight catches, 66 yards) got more involved early. The Giants marched into Eagles territory on all four of their first-half possessions.
But an interception and a turnover on downs at the 1-yard line led to the Giants scoring exactly zero points with those opportunities.
“The good thing is that we got it rolling, right?” Marshall said. “We didn’t really do anything the first two games. If we can continue to do that, we’ll be OK. Offensively, we have to build off of that. We just can’t let it come down to the fourth quarter.”