With a chance to revive their season in a Week 6 clash against NFC East rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants instead proved to their fans and the world just how far away they are from being a good football team.
It was an unusually wet and humid October night at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Thursday. The New York Giants were already playing what felt like a do-or-die game against their hated rival and the defending Super Bowl LII champs.
Similar to the G-Men, the Eagles have played well below expectations through the first quarter of the 2018 NFL season. Both teams came into the primetime matchup on a short week feeling desperate for a victory.
Heartbreaking was the Week 5 loss to the Carolina Panthers by a 33-31 score, thanks to Graham Gano’s improbable 63-yard field goal. The defeat overshadowed the New York Giants effort to score 30 points in a game for the first time since Week 17 of the 2015 season.
Perhaps Odell Beckham Jr.’s brutally honest interview with ESPN’s Josina Anderson actually worked by giving the team a much-needed kick in the pants.
But then the Giants took the field Thursday and the sliver of momentum they clung to vanished immediately following Manning’s interception on the first drive deep in his own territory. That turnover led to an easy Eagles touchdown minutes later when Carson Wentz slipped out of a collapsing pocket to find Alshon Jeffery in the back of the end zone for a 13-yard score.
Philadelphia never looked back. Giants fans didn’t either as most headed for the exits at halftime sparing themselves from the relentless E-A-G-L-E-S chants that could be heard from across the Hudson.
So what now?
With a replay of 2017’s nightmare season in full effect, every New York Giants player, coach and front office executive will have to look in the mirror and figure out how to salvage what is left of the remaining schedule. You can be sure those outside of the organization will be asking the following questions as well.