PHILADELPHIA – About 45 minutes before the start of a qualifying knockout tie that seemed unlikely for the Giants in August, Coach Brian Daboll and General Manager Joe Schoen met on the sidelines. The team’s co-owner, John Mara, soon joined.
Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch hired Daboll and Schoen last January. In their first year, instead of fiddling with rebuilding, the Giants won nine games in the regular season and their first knockout since their post-season Super Bowl victory in 2011.
The Cinderella Story ended Saturday night when the Giants lost the top seed Eagle, 38-7, on a chilly evening in Philadelphia. The Eagles, one of the league’s heavyweights all season, kept the Giants out of the game with key decisions involving key players and top assistant coaches. their.
The Giants lost 14-0 in the first half, following a sloppy offensive performance and explosive start by the Eagles. Philadelphia scored touchdown in the first two series, the second starting in midfield as full-back Haason Reddick sacked Daniel Jones in fourth.
Eagles winger James Bradberry, who was released by the Giants last May, blocked Jones during his next drive. By the time the Eagles ran back against Boston Scott darted into the back yard to hit the ball for three yards, extending the lead to 21-0 with about seven minutes remaining, the Giants’ touchline looked looks bleak. The game was never in doubt, and aside from Matt Breida’s hasty touch from eight yards and a few sensational moments running against Saquon Barkley, the Giants didn’t resist.
However, it was a surprise for the Giants to reach this point. In an August interview during training camp at the team’s red-brick facility in New Jersey, Schoen listed some flamboyant goals for his team, which has gone through five consecutive losing seasons. and haven’t made it to the knockout stages since 2016. Schoen and the main office inherited a salary cap predicament, making it impossible for them to add free agents or trade for star players.
“I just want to see progress,” Schoen said. “I just want to see the team get better, the play get better and not beat yourself up and compete in all the games. There’s not much we can do financially, so we can’t make a lot of big moves to upgrade what we have. But the boys are getting better, competing and playing together as one, hopefully that will push us forward as we establish the platform and the culture.”
The Giants have certainly shown progress. They’ve won 9 games – they’ve won 10 in the previous two seasons combined – and their most important players have shined. Barkley, who has been plagued by injuries since his rookie year in 2018, has revived his career, finishing fourth in the league in dash yards (1,312). Jones plays more efficiently and minimizes his spin, and he seems to thrive under Daboll, who as Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator helped develop Josh Allen into a quarterback. excellence.
But on Saturday, the supporting cast struggled. Barkley rushed 61 yards and Jones grabbed 5 sacks as the assault line collapsed. Jones threw just 135 yards as the receivers failed to create space against Philadelphia’s sub-passes and abandonment.
In contrast, The Giants, whose all-year roster was flawed, faced a team wisely built by Howie Roseman, the Eagles general manager. Through veteran additions like Reddick, Bradberry, recipient AJ Brown and full-back Darius Slay, along with drafts in midfield Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith recipient Roseman over the past three seasons had enough talent to make the Eagles a Super Bowl contender.
Hurts, the third-year quarterback who passed 154 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday, has become one of the best young pitchers in the league. The Eagles’ pounding attack, led by Kenneth Gainwell and Miles Sanders, was carried out over 200 yards and three hits to the ground. The defense only allowed fouls for a total of 227 yards.
In the regular season, the Eagles started 8-0 and won six of their remaining nine games, including two against the Giants. Scored the league’s highest eight Pro Bowl picks. They will host the winner of Sunday’s qualifying game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC championship.
Both Jones and Barkley are set to join the free agency in the spring unless they are signed to long-term contracts, and Daboll’s top aides, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and defensive coordinator Don Martindale , has attracted interest for head coach jobs across the league. With a projected $54 million cap and a year of experience implementing their systems and culture, Daboll and Schoen are poised to use an improved lineup in 2023. But they face with key decisions throughout the spring and summer that will determine whether the team is still seen as a Cinderella story or as a real contender.
