Following the disappointing tie to the Washington Commanders last week, the NY Giants enter Week 14 facing off against their bitter rivals in the Philadelphia Eagles.
This is a difficult game, no doubt, as the Eagles have only lost one game on the season and the Giants are 1-3-1 in their last five contests. For the Giants to have a chance at recording a win on Sunday, they must try to limit the immense talent of this Eagles team. With that in mind, here’s four players in particular NY must try and slow down.
4. RB Boston Scott
Normally, Boston Scott wouldn’t be a player teams focus their defensive gameplan around, however, Scott has been known as the “Giant killer” in recent seasons and has done his best to terrorize New York fans in the couple of times he has played the team.
Scott has 16 career TDs, eight of which have come against the Giants. In addition to this, Scott has amassed 327 rushing yards against the team in six games – he has 1,116 for his career.
Boston Scott has played in 6 games v. the Giants & 49 games v. other teams in his NFL career.
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) December 8, 2022
v. Giants: 91 YPG 8 TD
v. others: 22 YPG 7 TD
It’s honestly kind of funny the way Scott dominates against the Giants, as he is usually a rather solid player, but when he faces New York he turns into an absolute demon.
Who knows how well Scott will perform this time around, but regardless, the Giants must be ready. Not only do the Eagles have a top-tier offensive line that makes it easy for any RB to dominate, but Scott himself constantly makes life difficult for Giants fans.
Hopefully the Giants manage to shut down not only Scott, but the Eagles running game as a whole as well. We know what Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams are capable of in terms of run defense, but it will come down the linebackers of the NY Giants to step up big time this week. We’ll see if they answer the call.
3: CBs Darius Slay and James Bradberry
There are no doubts that these two have been one of the best secondary duos in the NFL this season. With the Giants lack of reliable receivers, this could make things very difficult for the offense. The Giants can help steer clear of Darius Slay and James Bradberry though if Mike Kafka is smart enough to do so. Obviously your offense can only go so far without throwing to your receivers, but we have seen the Giants win many games without a receiver-heavy offense.
With players like Daniel Bellinger and Saquon Barkley as available options in the receiving game, the Giants should put an emphasis on attacking the Eagles relatively weak linebacker core. T.J Edwards has emerged as one of the better coverage linebackers in the league this season, however, for the rest of Philadelphia’s ‘backers, the Giants should have no problem attacking them with Bellinger and Barkley.
Even if the Giants don’t center their gameplan around attacking the rest of the Eagles defense, we’re sure the offense can rely on Darius Slayton or Isaiah Hodgins for a big play or two when the team needs them.
These two receivers have been far from perfect, but considering the expectations surrounding the two, they’ve done quite well and have made some very nice plays. Hopefully they can make something happen against this elite Eagles secondary.
2. QB Jalen Hurts
Straight up, Jalen Hurts has been playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the league this season and the Eagles success shows it. Obviously he has plenty of help offensively, but he has absolutely proven himself this fall.
In 12 games played in 2022, Hurts has thrown for 2,940 yards, 20 TDs and three interceptions, completing 68.1% of his passes. In addition to this, Hurts has also run the ball 132 times for 609 yards and nine TDs. Hurts has always shown flashes of brilliance during his first two seasons in the league, but this year he has finally put it all together.
Not only can he hurt you through the air, but Hurts is one of the deadliest QBs in the league on the ground. The Giants linebackers will undoubtedly have their hands full this week between Hurts, Scott, and the rest of the Eagles running game.
It may be a smart idea for the Giants to regularly keep safety Julian Love on a QB spy for the majority of this game, then again, they may need him for coverage purposes. It is tough to say what Wink Martindale will draw up – Hurts is an elite QB, and the Giants defense is rather weak and beat up.
Stopping, or at least slowing down Hurts is likely the Giants best chance at winning this game. If they are unable to do so, things could get very ugly, very quickly.
1. WR A.J Brown
A.J Brown is easily the player that scares us the most entering this week’s matchup, especially with there being no Adoree’ Jackson again. Brown has been arguably the best receiver in the division and has continuously embarrassed opposing secondaries.
Through 12 games, Brown has caught 61 passes for 950 yards and nine TDs. Considering that Brown is coming off a game where he caught eight passes for 119 yards and two TDs, the Giants secondary could be in for yet another rough week.
In prior weeks, we were extremely confident in the abilities of Fabian Moreau, the new CB1 of the defense with no Jackson. However, after watching Moreau get torched by Terry McLaurin last week, our confidence is a little low.
The defense must keep Love on whatever side of the field Brown is on. While Love may not be the best safety in coverage, he is the Giants best chance of limiting big plays from the Pro Bowl receiver.
It seems impossible, but if Moreau can step his play up this week and at least somewhat limit Brown’s production, we could see this Giants defense make an unprecedented stand against this unbelievably talented Eagles team.
4 RBs the NY Giants should pursue this offseason not named Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants could choose to go in new directions this offseason. If they do, here are four running backs the Giants could target.