Philadelphia Eagles: Win vs. Giants keeps playoff hopes alive
By Carl Naimoli
The Philadelphia Eagles pulled off their biggest win of the year vs. the Giants. They finally showed the fight needed to make one last run at the playoffs.
The Philadelphia Eagles were looking down-and-out during their Week 12 matchup against the New York Giants. Trailing 19-3 at home to a last-place team caused a lot of fans to lose hope. But the players on the field showed that they still have the fight and drive, coming back and pulling off a season-saving victory.
It would have been easy to count the Eagles out early in this one. After all, look what happened to them the previous week in New Orleans. However, in front of their home fans, the Eagles knew that they couldn’t just lay down and take a beating.
It all started with a newfound commitment to the running game. For the first time all season, the Eagles had more rushing attempts than passing attempts, and it paid off. Heading into this game the Eagles only averaged 23 rushing attempts and 98 rushing yards per game. In the second half alone against the G-Men, Philly ran the ball 18 times for 92 yards.
The star of the game was rookie running back Josh Adams. In his best game as a professional, he was able to take the bulk of the carries and essentially take over the Eagles offense. His 84 yards on the ground is the highest mark put up by an Eagles running back all season.
It wasn’t just the offense that found a way to pull this victory out, though. Early in this game, the Eagles defense had no solution to stopping Saquon Barkley and the Giants offense. But after halftime, they played their best half of football all season long.
The Giants were only able to amass 51 total yards of offense and just three points in the second half. That’s exactly what this Eagles team needed to pull off a win at home.
The 25-22 win brings the Eagles to 5-6 on the season. In any other division besides the NFC East, the Eagles would be dead and buried.Luckily, they find themselves just one game back of the Cowboys and Redskins at the top of the division.
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It won’t be an easy road for the Eagles to make the playoffs — they still have games against the Rams, Texans, Cowboys and Redskins, all of which are teams that will be in the playoffs or who have a fighting chance to make the playoffs. But the one thing the Eagles did was keep hopes alive for at least one more week.