PLAYER NOTES
–DT Tim Jernigan was added to the 53-man roster after spending all season on the reserve/non-football injury list. Asked what his role would look like, head coach Doug Pederson said, “A good one.” And what that means in terms of snaps? “One hundred percent of the game, I don’t know, we’ll see.”
–The Eagles secondary is so banged up, with starters Ronald Darby (out for season with torn ACL) and Jalen Mills (unable to play in two straight games), and backups Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas and rookie Avonte Maddox all unable to practice on Wednesday. There is a chance none of them will play. If that is the case, the Eagles’ three cornerbacks will be Chandon Sullivan, Cre’Von LeBlanc, and De’Vante Bausby. None of those three were on the roster three weeks ago.
–RB Darren Sproles will miss yet another game with a hamstring injury. He hasn’t played since the season opener on Sept. 6.
–WR Golden Tate still hasn’t had the effect on the Eagles’ offense as the team had hoped when they acquired the veteran receiver from the Detroit Lions at the trade deadline. He had more snaps in his second game than he did in his debut, but his impact was minimal, catching five passes for 48 yards.
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: QB Carson Wentz. The offense, of course, runs through Wentz, and the quarterback struggled mightily against the Saints, probably playing his worst game as a pro. “I’m going to go through this week same way I always do,” said Wentz. “Last week was last week … I don’t change my approach win, lose, good bad, indifferent, I stay the same really all the time. I kind of build my routine and how I mentally prepare. I’ve established that.”
Wentz had his second three-interception game as a pro. His previous one was against the Bengals on Dec. 4, 2016 in a 32-14 loss. He went 36-for-60 (60 percent) for 308 yards with a touchdown. How did he respond? Well, just OK. Against the Redskins the following week, he was 32-for-46 (69.5 percent) with 306 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The week after that, he didn’t throw a touchdown pass against the Baltimore Ravens.
In fact, until Sunday, when he didn’t throw a touchdown pass against the Saints, that game against the Ravens on Dec. 18, 2016, was the last game he had not thrown a TD, meaning his streak of throwing for at last one score in 22 straight games ended last weekend.
GAME PLAN: The Eagles did a good job taking Odell Beckham Jr. away from New York quarterback Eli Manning, holding Beckham to just 44 yards on six catches. It was his lowest yardage output of the season.
“They paid special attention to him, whether they were playing man, they used Malcolm (Jenkins) to double him, and when they were playing zone, they would crowd him up,” said Giants head coach Pat Shurmur. “We need to be aware of that, but still find ways for him to touch the ball.”
The flip side to taking away Beckham was that Barkley beat them on the ground and in the air. The way the Eagles run defense has played the last two weeks, Barkley could chew them up again.
“They run the football really good and lately we haven’t been able to stop the ball and that’s a problem because they’re going to hand (number) 26 the ball,” said defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. “We gave up 100-plus yards the last two weeks and that’s uncommon for our defense, and we have to get it fixed.”
Added Jenkins: “There are a ton of things on this team right now that are alarming, run defense being one of them. It’s most disappointing because we’ve always taken pride in stopping the run. That comes down to a multitude of things. But at the end of the day, we gotta dominate at the line of scrimmage. That’s where we make our plays as a defense, being able to challenge teams when they do try to run it … and they’re behind the sticks and we can pass rush.”
Offensively, well it sounds like a broken record for sure, and that is the slow starts. It’s been a problem all season, and if it doesn’t stop here and the Giants grab a lead and ride to a win, the Eagles’ will have nothing left to play for the rest of the way but pride.
QUOTES TO NOTE: “We’ve got to get back to work,” said head coach Doug Pederson. “New York Giants, (NFC East) game, right in front of us, in fact three games in front of us with our division. We have to quickly erase Sunday. We have to learn from Sunday, never to let that happen again as coaches and players and move on from that. And again, you’re two games out, and it’s a great opportunity this week to make one step closer to your goal.
–“It’s a division game and we know what they can do offensively, so we have to put up points,” said receiver Nelson Agholor. “They have a fast defense, a lot of speed, so we have to prepare for that.”
MATCHUPS TO WATCH
–Giants RB Saquon Barkley vs. Eagles run defense. This looks like a mismatch, given the way the Eagles’ run stoppers have been giving up yards the last two weeks. Perhaps the return of DT Timmy Jernigan will give the line a boost. The Eagles know Barkley will need to be contained, somehow, some way. Quite honestly, that’s what I would do (run the ball) against us right now,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. “We’re going to have to be ready for it.”
Eagles QB Carson vs. Giants defense. It will be interesting to see how Wentz rebounds from the worst game of his career. Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins said this week that he doesn’t think Wentz is moving around on his repaired knee as well as he did last year. Of course, Jenkins didn’t have much to say about how Wentz carved up the New York defense in their first meeting this year, completing 26 of 36 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns.
