Daniel Jones had his strongest performance in a 27-17 NY Giants win over the Eagles in a crucial NFC East win
The NY Giants won’t be waking up Monday in first place in the NFC East, but after Sunday’s 27-17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Joe Judge’s team is entrenched in the division’s driver seat.
More importantly than making up ground on the rival Eagles, the Giants got a signature coming of age performance from Daniel Jones.
In the game’s biggest moment, Jones hit Darius Slayton deep downfield for a 40-yard gain on a beautifully thrown pass for a first down along the sideline with 4:10 remaining and the Giants leading 24-17. It was one of many impressive moments for Jones in what might have been his finest performance as a professional.
Jones rushed for a touchdown in the first quarter, hit consecutive deep passes in the second quarter, he accounted for 310 total yards, and most importantly managed his second consecutive turnover free performance.
But, Jones was just a piece of the Giants’ puzzle as the defense and special teams played pivotal roles.
Punter Riley Dixon pinned the Eagles inside their own 15-yard line three times. Graham Gano drilled a 44-yard field goal to put the Giants up by 10 in the waning moments. The Giants’ defense slammed the door shut on the Eagles’ final drive of the game.
Sunday’s win improved the Giants to 3-7, and pulled New York within striking distance of the 3-5-1 Eagles with a sweep over Washington already in the rearview mirror and one more division game, the season finale against the beleaguered Dallas Cowboys.
Scroll through for instant analysis of Sunday’s monumental win:
Daniel Jones mobility remains a weapon
Jones showed once again on the opening possession of the game that defenses must respect his mobility, or pay the price for letting him get loose.
On the eighth play of the Giants’ drive, Jones sold the fake-handoff to Wayne Gallman before streaking off tackle untouched for a 34-yard touchdown to lift the Giants to a 7-0 lead.
This is far from the first time that Jones broke loose on a big run.
Unlike the first meeting between these teams back in Week 7 when Jones tripped over the 15-yard line at Lincoln Financial Field on an 80-yard run, Jones wound up getting the Giants on the board Sunday.
Later, on another fake handoff zone read run, Jones plunged six yards to the Eagles five-yard line, setting up a second quarter touchdown.
Jones entered Sunday leading the Giants in rushing with 320 yards, while averaging eight yards per carry.
Sunday, Jones finished with a team-high 66 rushing yards and a touchdown, while averaging 9.4 yards per attempt.
The combination of Jones’ legs and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett creatively using deception with fake end-arounds, misdirection and zone-read concepts has been instrumental in jumpstarting the Giants’ offense in recent weeks.
Aggressiveness pays off
Joe Judge deserves a slew of helmet stickers for the culture he’s established in such a short time as the Giants’ head coach, and certainly earned another with an aggressive gamble to open the second quarter.
With the Giants leading 7-3, and coming up just short of a first down at the Eagles’ two-yard line, Judge clearly smelled blood in the water and pounced. Literally.
Judge’s aggressiveness, going for it on 4th and 1 from the two, Garrett called a halfback dive with an extra offensive lineman on the field and Wayne Gallman took the handoff and leapt over the top for a touchdown to give the Giants a 14-3 lead.
Sunday carried the most postseason implications of any game the Giants have played since 2016, and Judge deciding to go for it rather than settling for a field goal sent a resounding message to his players that he not only trusted them to make a big play in the biggest of games but also that the Giants need to be taken seriously in the division race.
However, Judge should have learned from his earlier success when he elected to punt from the 41-yard line, nursing a 14-3 lead towards the end of the first half. Going for it would have sent a message that Judge trusts a defense that had been playing well, and potentially set up a field goal try to go up 14 points.
Tempo worked wonders
The Giants have talked a lot about using tempo this season and its impact on defenses, but Sunday was the first game where that talk seemed to be put into action.
On the first possession, the Giants spread the Eagles out and ran tempo throughout the possession, and did so again in the third quarter.
Jones hit receivers Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate in tight coverage on perfectly-placed back-shoulder throws on the Giants’ opening possession of the second half, despite blanket coverage, then The Giants hurried to the line of scrimmage after the completions of 27 and 38 yards. The Giants’ uptempo offense put the Eagles’ defense on its heels and ultimately capped the possession with Gallman’s second touchdown of the game.
Garrett and the Giants’ offense dictated to the Eagles’ defense for much of the game, and tempo played a key factor.
Rushing defense shatters
The Giants’ defense was built by general manager Dave Gettleman primarily to stop the run, but that dam shattered on Sunday.
Entering Week 10 as the NFL’s eighth ranked rushing defense, allowing 94.7 yards per game, the Giants were gashed by Miles Sanders, Corey Clement, and perennial Giants killer Boston Scott for runs of 56, 14, and a pair of touchdowns.
The Eagles produced 156 rushing yards as a patchwork offensive line consistently bullied Dalvin Tomlison, Dexter Lawrence, and Leonard Williams off the line of scrimmage in the running game.
It wound up not mattering, but if the Giants are going to compete for the division championship and a possible playoff berth against backs like the Bengals’ Joe Mixon, Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson, and the Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott looming down the stretch, this is a worrisome area that needs shored up.
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.