Giants-Eagles: 5 plays that led to Sunday’s loss

The New York Giants were overmatched, beaten up, and entirely out-classed by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, losing 48-22. The Giants will look to regroup in a must-win Week 15 game against Washington next week. Here are the five plays that led to the Giants’ loss.

Play(s) 1: Back-to-back touchdown passes

The Eagles were on the outskirts of Jake Elliott’s field goal range in less-than-ideal conditions. On a fourth-and-7, Philadelphia threw the football, and the end result was a 41-yard touchdown to wide receiver DeVonta Smith.

Nick Sirianni showed confidence in his possible MVP quarterback after this 12-play, 91-yard drive. Smith does a great job winning off the line of scrimmage and stacking Darnay Holmes (30). Julian Love (20) took a good angle to the catch point but seemingly misjudged his intentions, and Smith caught the slot fade for six.

On the next Eagles’ offensive possession, the play above is the first play. Off the play-action pass, Hurts finds AJ Brown (11) on a deep over route that goes for six.

Play(s) 2: Can’t stop the run

The Giants were gashed on the ground. They surrendered four total touchdowns - one is below. The Eagles rushed for 253 yards; Miles Sanders finished with 144 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries (8.5 YPC). Jalen Hurts had 77 yards on seven carries (10 YPC).

Eagles’ running back Boston Scott loves scoring touchdowns against the New York Giants.

Scott also had a 66-yard kick return against the Giants that set up the Eagles’ first field goal attempt near the end of the first half. Scott finished the game with six carries for 33 yards (5.5 YPC). Before this game, the Giants allowed 164.7 yards on the ground over the last three games; that ranks 28th in the league in that time span.

Play(s) 3: Punting escapades

Both the Eagles and the Giants had odd punting plays that quickly resulted in the opposing team scoring a touchdown. Giants’ punter Jamie Gillan dropped the snap and attempted to perform a drop-kick that was deemed a penalty

After the illegal kick foul, the Eagles started their drive at the Giants 33-yard line. The first play of that “drive” was the touchdown strike to A.J. Brown.

Elerson Smith (94) blocked Arryn Siposs’ punt, and the specialist almost picked up the first down with his legs before getting knocked out of bounds and injured. Siposs just missed converting, and the Giants scored three plays later. Eagles’ kicker Jake Elliott was forced to punt after Siposs’ exit, albeit only once.

Play(s) 4: Early third-and-sixs

The Eagles started the game with a 14-play, 84-yard drive where it was mostly efficient offense on first and second down, but the Giants’ defense did force two third-and-6 situations. Unfortunately, the Eagles displayed their dominance early in this game with two conversions:

The first conversion was an excellent rhythm throw and catch by Hurts to Smith. Hurts released the football just as Smith came out of his break; Fabian Moreau (37) is in tight coverage on Smith’s inside hip, but the football was perfectly placed outside the numbers to move the chains.

After Jaylon Smith made an impressive open-field tackle on DeVonta Smith in space on second-and-7, the Eagles got a conversion due to Moreau being penalized for illegal use of hands.

Rookie CB Cor’Dale Flott (28) did a great job avoiding contact with the designed rub route. He stayed tight to Brown and made the open field tackle that would have forced a punt, but Moreau was too grabby in the slot against Smith, so the Eagles’ drive continued before resulting in Miles Sanders’ first touchdown.

Play(s) 5: Philadelphia’s pressure

The Giants’ offensive line surrendered four sacks with Daniel Jones in the game - two of the sacks were on the Giants’ first offensive possession that lasted five plays. In mop-up duty, Tyrod Taylor was sacked three times.

Andrew Thomas is one of the best tackles in football, but he lost high-side to Josh Sweat (94). New York could not afford to play behind the sticks, and the offense started with a solid couple of plays before this negative one that stifled the drive.

Later in that same drive, Evan Neal was beaten inside by Haason Reddick (7) after attempting to account for Reddick’s speed up the arc. Here are the other two Eagles’ sacks against Daniel Jones.