The Giants scored so quickly and so effortlessly on their first drive Monday night, Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis was genuinely concerned about what was going to happen over the next 55 minutes.
“After the first drive, we were making sure they didn’t score 100 on us tonight,” Davis said. “They made it look so easy.”
The Giants never scored again.
The Eagles, who shut out the Giants a year ago this week, almost did it again Monday night, blanking their division rival after Odell Beckham Jr.'s early touchdown and moving into first place in the NFC East with a 27-7 win (see Instant Replay).
On their first drive, the Giants netted 80 yards. On their next 13, they netted 167.
In the Giants’ first five games, Eli Manning threw two interceptions and was sacked four times.
Monday night? He threw two interceptions and was sacked four times.
The Giants came to the Linc ranked among the top five in the NFL in virtually every offensive category, but the Eagles battered Manning, stuffed the run, didn't allow a pass play longer than 17 yards and forced three turnovers, including Nolan Carroll’s second-quarter pick-six that gave the Eagles the lead for good (see 10 observations).
“We’re really focused on turnovers and points allowed,” Davis said. “That’s what we talk about, that’s what the best defenses do, and right now, we’re getting the turnovers at a high rate and the points are down.”
The Giants led 7-0 and were driving deep in Eagles territory later in the first quarter when DeMeco Ryans picked off Manning at the Eagles’ 23-yard line, muscling the football from Giants tight end Larry Donnell.
“Just have to have the will just to come down with it,” Ryans said. “Any time as a defensive player you get your hands on the ball, you have to pull it in.”
Momentum change? You bet.
“You could tell,” Ryans said. “Sideline went crazy. It was definitely a momentum shift. Something we needed as a team.”
At that point, the Giants had outgained the Eagles, 110-3.
The rest of the game? The Eagles outgained the Giants, 422-137.
"DeMeco started something incredible,” defensive end Cedric Thornton said. "He started a forest fire and we just kept it going. We just had the mentality of, 'Don’t let 'em score again.' That’s what we said. 'Don’t let them score again and we’ll win.'"
With the win, the Eagles improved to 3-3 after an 0-2 start and moved into first place in the NFC East with the tiebreaker over the Giants.
“That might have been the key point,” Davis said of Ryans’ INT. “That second drive, they were moving the ball again on us, and then all of a sudden DeMeco comes up with that interception. That was a wild play. DeMeco kind of turned everything for us on that play.”
Ryans left the game in the second quarter with a hamstring injury but not before he had piled up two pass breakups, a fumble recovery, five tackles and an interception.
Ryans said after the game that he's fine and expects to be able to play Sunday in Carolina against the undefeated Panthers.
“For us, defensively, being able to get some turnovers and being able to really hit Eli, disrupt him and get hits on him, that was the key,” Ryans said.
“It’s tight coverage in the back end, it allowed the guys up front to really cut it loose, Vinny (Curry), Connor (Barwin), [Brandon Graham] and those guys were able to get some hits on Eli.”
By the second half, the Giants simply had no way to move the ball.
Manning threw for just 26 yards after halftime, and Beckham, who was 7 for 61 in the first half, didn’t catch a pass. The Giants netted just 55 yards after halftime.
Davis didn’t even have to blitz after the first quarter. And that’s always a huge positive.
"I did early, but then the four-man rush started getting there, and I said, 'Guys, you’re not making this any fun,'" he said.
"I like calling blitzes, but the four-man rush was getting there and disturbing them and it allowed us to give extra attention to Beckham. Because if you blitz, everybody’s one-on-one, nobody gets help. But when you can get the rush with four men, you can help in other places, and that’s what we did tonight."
Davis installed a few new wrinkles into the game plan, stuff Manning had never seen.
Davis said it’s not that important what he added. Just that the Eagles gave Manning some new looks.
“When a guy has the playbook on the line of scrimmage, you have to give him something he hasn’t seen before and that’s what we did,” Davis said.
“Just a couple new looks and the guys executed it, and Nolan Carroll ended up getting a pick-six on them, and the guys just played well with the new stuff we put in.”
Since allowing 26 points in Atlanta in the opener, the Eagles have allowed 20, 13, 23, 17 and 7 points.
They’ve allowed just 10 touchdowns all year. They’re now sixth-best in the NFL in points allowed (18.3 per game) and second in takeaways (16).
“I feel like we are getting much better,” Ryans said. “Besides that first drive, really solid game. Something for us to continue to build on.
“The takeaways, getting pressure on the quarterback, hitting hits, the run game. We’re just playing really solid defense right now.”