The final game of the 2023 campaign for the NY Giants was a complete and total shock. The Eagles were expected to dominate the G-Men and enter the postseason with plenty of confidence. However, the opposite proved to be the case.
New York came out with a ton of passion/fire and Philly could not have been more flat. At halftime, the Giants were in cruise control, owning a 24-0 lead. Jalen Hurts and other starters were on the sidelines for the second half in what quickly turned out to be a lost game - Brian Daboll and Co. posted a 27-10 victory.
What the heck happened? According to tight end Dallas Goedert, the Eagles simply didn't have the right mindset for the final two games against the Cardinals and Giants, overlooking two teams they were expected to top. Yeah, this is going to tick off a lot of Eagles fans, but we sure love it:
Dallas Goedert clarifies his comments about the Eagles possibly looking ahead to the postseason after clinching a spot on the @WIPMiddayShow. pic.twitter.com/GxdzrrGwYL
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) January 10, 2024
The Eagles clearly overlooked the Giants and Cardinals to close out the 2023 season
"We always say we never look ahead in the schedule and we want to take it day by day. And that's exactly what we want to do. But you know we had that hard stretch in the middle of the season and whether it was outside noise or you look at the schedule before the season and notice what looks like easy games at the end of the season, games that, you know, we expected to win without doing anything.Dallas Goedert
So we lost a couple of games in the hard stretch and, you know, like, it's okay, we'll win the games at the end of the year. You know, the three games at the end of the year that seem really winnable. And, you know, we might have overlooked it. We might have just coasted and expected our talent to win games.
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After the Eagles survived an overtime thriller against the Bills on Nov. 26, the team improved to 10-1. Then, all hell broke loose. Nick Sirianni's men lost five of the final six games to close out the year at 11-6. The lone win during that stretch came against the Giants in Week 16.
Outside of that, however, everything looked rough for the Eagles over the final six weeks, especially in the season finale. The Giants indeed dominated play last Sunday, landing punch after punch against Philly. Keep in mind the Eagles entered the game with a chance to win the NFC East.
The Eagles will now try to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive this weekend on the road against the Bucs in the Wild Card Round, but the optimism surrounding this team has never been lower. The fact that the Eagles overlooked the Cardinals and Giants during the final two weeks tells you all you need to know about the mess going inside of that locker room right now.