EAGLES 7
This much was made clear in Philadelphia when the Giants and Eagles did battle on this final Sunday in October, both teams stink with a capital S.
Anyone watching or attending this farce of a game probably was best suited watching it with a clothes- pins on his nose and a paper bag over his head.
While the Giants defense gets credited with pitching a shutout for the second straight week, let's be honest, they don't deserve the credit. This game was more about how poorly the Eagles played offensively than how the Giants dominated on defense.
Michael Vick was woeful. He left the contest early after re-injuring the already tender hamstring he hurt in the first Giants meeting three weeks ago, leaving the game in the hands of rookie Matt Barkley. And the former USC product looked the part of a rookie quarterback from USC. In short, he stunk.
Barkley couldn't handle the Giants blitzes; New York knocked around the rook for four sacks and even stripped him of the football at the Giants two yard line on Philadelphia's only positive drive of the afternoon.
The only reason Philadelphia even scored a touchdown in this game had to do with New York's dreadful special teams, when long snapper Zack DeOssie snapped the football over the head of punter Steve Weatherford. The Eagles recovered in the end zone for the score.
Meanwhile, the Giants offense again struggled to find any consistency in the passing game while Peyton Hillis played the hero on the ground for the second straight week. Hillis' 20 carry, 70 yard performance paced the Giants through the course of the afternoon and helped New York convert on numerous short yardage situations and eat up some much needed clock.
However, the Giants could only muster five field goals. Five separate times New York drove the football deep into Eagles territory, but, when push came to shove, Eli Manning couldn't make the big time connection to push the Giants into the end zone.
For example, on the Giants opening possession, they drove the football all the way to the Eagles 22-yard line only to have Manning throw three incompletions to force the field goal.
Later in the game, with New York up 6-0, Big Blue made it all the way down to the Eagles five yard line. Facing a first and goal it looked like New York was poised to score its first touchdown of the afternoon, yet a holding call on Justin Pugh pushed the Giants back and knocked them off their stride. Manning again threw three consecutive incompletions, so the Giants were forced to settle for another three points.
Even though it's a win, and, after a 0-6 start, the Giants will take any win they can get; the fact remains that this Giants team is over-matched, poorly manned and badly coached. They are lucky that they even had the Eagles and Vikings on their schedule these past two weeks. If the Giants had played a decent team the past two weeks, they would be either 1-7 or, worse, 0-8.
The good news for the Giants? They don't play at all next week with the bye coming up.
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