Eagles blowing doors off Giants confirmed the reality for both teams
They are who we thought they were. They being the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants.
The Giants entered the NFC East showdown Sunday with a 7-4-1 record, but the quality of their wins has been in question this year as the true talent and skill level of this team is evaluated week to week. The Eagles have been the best team in the NFL this year, now boasting a 12-1 record, and they looked every bit as good as their record suggests with a dominating 48-22 win on the road against a division rival.
The Eagles are certified Super Bowl contenders, while the Giants look like a team that still has some moves to make before they have a roster capable of sustained winning.
This isn’t a bad place for the Giants to be. Winning games is tough in the NFL and any time you can put yourself in playoff contention is a good thing. However, the Giants still need to have a big influx of talent if they want to have a chance of repeating their success in the win-loss column next season. Their defense doesn’t quite have the requisite talent to run the aggressive scheme that defensive coordinator Wink Martindale likes to employ. The offense needs to figure out their plan at quarterback and add a few more weapons on the outside. Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka have done a fairly good job working with the pieces that they have, but there’s just another level of production and consistency that they need to be able to hit.
Unfortunately, that won’t be solved until the offseason when they have a chance to take a step back and tinker with the roster. It was just clear there’s a massive chasm between where the Giants are and where the Eagles are, which is where every NFL team wants to be. This is a team that’s capable of walking into the home of a quality division rival and just trouncing them to the point where the game felt out of reach from the first drive. Jalen Hurts torched the Giants' secondary, the offensive line bulldozed room for Miles Sanders and the defense was lights-out for the vast majority of the game. As far as Super Bowl contenders go, the Eagles are the clear favorite in the NFC and the best team top-to-bottom in the NFL.
The Eagles just have too many options on offense for a defense that lacks depth like the Giants. Hurts has made strides throwing the ball and he has even more chances to showcase that talent when he receives protection like he did Sunday against the Giants. The Giants are a feisty team, the Eagles are a dominant team. At the very least, the Eagles have laid out the blueprint on how the Giants can get back to being one of the best teams in the league: continue the investment in the trenches on both sides of the ball and go hard after offensive playmakers. Hurts has developed into a good player in his own right, but life is obviously made easier with guys like DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown to throw to — both of whom were acquired using first-round picks.
It’s going to take time, but at least the Giants have shown they have a coaching staff that can keep them competitive as they start their first full offseason in a few months. The Eagles are just on a different level, raising the bar for the entire league once again this week.
