NY Giants won’t soon forget Eagles’ disgraceful mid-game tanking vs. Washington Football Team

Intended or not, Doug Pederson quitting on Sunday night’s game kept the NY Giants out of the NFL Playoffs, and if the roles are ever reversed, Joe Judge likely won’t forget

NY Giants defensive back Jabrill Peppers has never made the NFL Playoffs, and finishing 6-10 this season was the closest he’s come to the postseason.

Had it not been for the Philadelphia Eagles throwing in the towel harder than Rocky Balboa should have to save Apollo Creed’s life, Peppers and his NY Giants teammates just might have made it this year.

The Giants, of course, after beating the Dallas Cowboys earlier Sunday, needed the Eagles — besieged by injuries and mounting discontent surrounding quarterback Carson Wentz — to pull off an upset of the Washington Football Team to deliver New York its first NFC East championship since 2011.

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson had other ideas.

Throughout the week, Pederson stressed that the plan was to get some snaps for third-string quarterback and three-year veteran Nate Sudfeld at some point Sunday night. That point came with the Eagles trailing by three points in the fourth quarter, after rookie Jalen Hurts — Wentz’s possible successor as soon as 2021, having already passing for 72 yards and rushing for both of Philadelphia’s touchdowns.

If there were any quarterback to evaluate and get as many snaps as possible for in Week 17, it was Hurts. Not Sudfeld.

What value could there possibly have been in evaluating a 27-year-old career backup that Pederson hadn’t yet learned in his prior three appearances, including a 19-of-23 passing performance back in Week 2017, when he saw extended run in another meaningless season finale?

By pulling Hurts, Pederson robbed his young quarterback of quality playing time to put his best foot — and arm — forward on film to evaluate this offseason. Intended or not, Pederson’s actions sent a dangerous message to a national audience that the Eagles had zero interest in actually competing in this game and strongly preferred pulling out all the stops to lose their way to the No. 6 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft.

There’s no better way of putting this … For the first time in recent memory, a head coach and his team tanked. In the middle of a game.

This wasn’t the front office trading away the best players in September to accumulate draft picks, as the Jaguars did, to race to the bottom.

Pederson’s actions Sunday night were even more egregious than Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams sending everyone, including the paramedics and security guards on a zero blitz against Derek Carr and the Las Vegas Raiders, because unlike the Jets who knew their stated goal this season was to draft Trevor Lawrence, the Eagles don’t know if Hurts is the answer.

Pederson’s own job security was likely on wobbly ground entering Sunday night after a fall of discontent in Philadelphia. Perhaps that played into his quizzical strategy.

If nothing else, the outrage among sources inside the league over Pederson essentially quitting on a game to move up four spots in the draft could bring about a meaningful conversation about a lottery similar to the NBA’s or some sort of reform to the system to prevent such a callous disregard for competition to ever happen again.

Meanwhile, 90 minutes up I-95, in East Rutherford, NJ. NY Giants players were apoplectic about the fact that Pederson seemingly stopped trying to win.

“Why on God’s green earth is Jalen Hurts not playing,” Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton tweeted, shortly after Sudfeld was inserted into the game.

The Giants were innocent bystanders Sunday night, but also victims of their own circumstances.

Look, the Giants have only themselves to blame for missing the postseason. It would have been a laughable — if not perfectly fitting in this God-awful division — for a six-win team to host a playoff game.

Tom Brady and the Buccaneers might have hung 50 on the Giants’ defense in the Wild Card Game.

But, who is to say that the ghosts of Super Bowls past swirling around MetLife Stadium along with the swirling January wind wouldn’t have been enough to push the Giants to an upset victory and onto the divisional round? The way this defense has been playing, and the way it slammed the door on the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth quarter Sunday, anything is possible.

In any year besides the wretched and forgettable 2020, the Giants aren’t sniffing the postseason. But, those were the circumstances preceding the Eagles laying down in the fourth quarter.

Intended or not — and we might never know for sure — Pederson’s actions cost Joe Judge and Daniel Jones meaningful postseason experience and perhaps a springboard to something more either this season or beyond.

Peppers and the Giants said the right things Monday.

“We had 16 opportunities to make it happen,” Peppers said. And we didn’t. Anytime you put your destiny in another man’s hands it doesn’t bode well for you. It is what it is.”

While that is absolutely the right mindset for a team who won just two games outside of a division that finished with a 23-40-1 record to have, it doesn’t mean the sting will be gone next fall.

Whether the Giants open the season against the Eagles — what drama that would be, or the pair meet in Week 17 with the possibility of deciding the NFC East championship, something tells me that the decision to fold the tent and go through the motions by Pederson and Co. won’t be forgotten.

I somehow doubt that Judge will throw in the towel if he has the chance to slam the door on Doug Pederson and the Eagles’ hopes next season.

Even if Judge won’t say it, his players certainly did, and forget they certainly won’t …

Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.