The Eagles are tied for first place in the NFC East. That’s the end result — even if the means to that end were ugly indeed.
The Eagles didn’t look particularly smooth against the Giants. Sam Bradford uncorked some terrible throws and the Eagles made some bad mistakes (see story), but it was their good fortune to host the Giants. Tom Coughlin’s crew was woeful on Monday Night Football. The Giants did a great job of beating the Giants, maybe more so than the Eagles. Either way, the Eagles smacked the Giants, 27-7 (see Instant Replay). The scoreboard said so, even if your lying eyes didn’t quite believe it.
The Eagles started the season 1-3. They looked bad against the Cowboys and Washington. And yet the Eagles are somehow tied for first place in a bad division. That’s the primary takeaway (see 10 observations).
“Every game is important,” Chip Kelly said when asked about the implications of the Eagles getting their first division win. “Every single game is important. At the end of the year, what’s your final record? You can’t say, ‘Well, we lost that one, but it wasn’t that important.' Every game is important and that’s what we talk about ... I don’t go in saying, ‘Hey, it’s an AFC opponent, let’s just take it easy this week because it doesn’t count.’ They all count. At the end of the day, they all count.”
Indeed. Ugly victory or not, it counted.
More from Kelly following the Eagles' win over the Giants ...
• On their first drive, the Giants went 80 yards in eight plays for a touchdown. New York managed 135 yards in the first quarter. But in the final three quarters, the Giants had just 112 yards. If the offense stuttered and stopped at times, the defense got moving after its slow start (see story).
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“I thought they were outstanding, especially after that first drive where they went right down the field and went 80 yards and it’s 7-0 right off the bat,” Kelly said. “Kind of neutralized the crowd. Kind of hushed everyone up. I think they only had 160 yards after that. Our defense, the rush, the ability to get to Eli (Manning) — which is difficult. Going into this, I think they had only given up a short amount of sacks. And they’d only turned the ball over not very much, either.”
• The Eagles sacked Manning three times. They intercepted him twice. And they forced a fumble. Manning had one of his worst games of the season: 189 yards and a ghastly 62.3 passer rating. (That was actually slightly better than Bradford’s rating, which we’ll get to shortly.)
One of Manning’s interceptions came courtesy of Nolan Carroll, who returned it for a touchdown. The other pick was pulled off by DeMeco Ryans, who also recovered a fumble.
“For us to come up with Nolan’s pick was big,” Kelly said. “And I thought the play by DeMeco Ryans on the interception really kind of stemmed the tide because they were moving the ball again and DeMeco made a nice play on the wheel route and kind of knocked the ball out ... that interception by DeMeco was kind of key. Everyone kind of took a deep breath.”
• The Eagles have been regularly victimized this season by “X-plays” (plays of 20 or more yards). On Sunday, the longest play they surrendered went for 14 yards.
“We were on people,” Kelly said. “It was a combination of things. I think it was the pass rush. And then in terms of what they do, the ball is out quick. So we talked about if the ball is out quick, we’ve got to tackle. And I thought we tackled better on the back end."
• Bradford completed 24 of 38 passes for 280 and a touchdown. He also threw three interceptions and finished with a 61.3 QB rating. On one of the throws, Bradford fired deep down field but Riley Cooper seemed to stop on the route and the ball was easily picked off.
“We had some miscommunication on some routes where the quarterback and the receivers weren’t on the same page,” Kelly said. “We have to clean that up. We’ve talked about that.”
Yes. They have. After almost every game. They’ve now played six times, and it continues to be an issue. One reporter brought that up, noting that Kelly has had this crew together since spring and still there are communication break downs.
“Yeah,” Kelly replied. “We know that.”
He continued: “It’s not one specific thing. It’s not, ‘Hey, this happened, so let’s correct it.’ At one point in time, it’s the receiver. At another point in time, we didn’t get it communicated. It’s a group of guys. We’ve got to get it straightened out.”
• Even if you hang one or two of the interceptions on the receivers, Bradford still unleashed a terrible throw that was intercepted in the end zone when he was looking for Zach Ertz. It was the fourth time this season that Bradford has been picked off in the end zone. No other quarterback has more than one.
“We had a matchup,” Kelly said. “We felt like we had Ertz on the safety and the ball was just a little bit behind him. We were going. That’s what we were trying to do. The play call, that’s what we were trying to do. The ball was just a little bit behind him from what I saw."
• Despite those miscues, the Eagles still got past the Giants. Kelly admitted what every astute football observer already knows: turning the ball over more than your opponent usually dooms you. It didn’t on Monday. The way Kelly put it was interesting for two reasons: the candor and the subtle dig at the Giants.
“We can’t continue to do that against really good football teams,” Kelly said. “We were fortunate that we did it and got away with it [Monday].”
You can’t do that against good football teams. Lucky for them the Giants were something else on Monday.