NFL Week 6: Eagles At Giants Preview

Marco Catini via Flickr

NFL

The Philadelphia Eagles And New York Giants To Faceoff Thursday Night In NFC East Match

The New York Giants have won four regular-season games since September 2017. The Philadelphia Eagles fell off their parade floats to a 2-3 record. Philadelphia and New York sit third and fourth in their division respectively. Thursday night’s matchup is the Giants’ last chance to save a season just six weeks in, and an opportunity for the Eagles to put new life in their season.

Division Snapshot

The NFC East is in absolute disarray. Made up of the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington, not one team has a winning record. All four are in the bottom ten teams in scoring. The first division game ended in a Cowboys victory over the Giants. Currently, Washington sits on top of the division at 2-2, followed by the Cowboys (2-3), the Eagles (2-3), and the Giants (1-4).

Thursday night’s game will be the second division matchup of the season. If New York loses, they will lose any reasonable hope of a playoff birth at 1-5 in the season and 0-2 in the division. While not as dire as the Giants, Philadelphia is in a must-win situation as well.

At a 2-3 record, the Eagles need to start tallying wins, especially against less formidable opponents. Their schedule only strengthens after this week’s matchup. Falling to 2-4 and 0-1 for Philadelphia could be a wound that proves fatal for the Birds.

Injury Report

Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia has lost their seventh player to the injury reserve list earlier this week. Running back Jay Ajayi was ruled out for the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL. Ajayi was not the only Eagle to leave Week 5 with an injury.

Five Eagles did not participate in Monday’s practice, and four Eagles had only limited participation in practice. The most notable injuries are defensive end Derek Barnett who did not participate along with offensive linemen Lane Johnson and Jason Peters who both had limited participation.

The Eagles’ offensive line has struggled throughout the entirety of the season. Losing two key linemen could be game, set, match for Philadelphia and quarterback Carson Wentz.

New York Giants

The Giants will enter Thursday night’s game in a much healthier state than the Eagles. LBs Olivier Vernon and former Eagle Connor Barwin have both been listed as questionable for New York. Tight ends, Evan Engram and Rhett Ellison, have both been listed as questionable as well.

Engram is a safe target who rarely drops a pass. Depending on Eli Manning, Engram can get the Giants anywhere from 20 to 80 yards a game. Potentially losing wide receiver Russell Shepard for Thursday’s game won’t cause too much of a disturbance for New York. Shepard has been targeted just eight times this season, catching four of those targets for 61 yards.

Keys To The Game

Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia has been averaging 20.6 points a game against their opponents, a far cry from last season. New York has scored an average of 20.8 points a game, so for all intents and purposes, the offensive production is equivalent.

First, the Eagles will need to hold the Giants to about 20 points. While Giants’ RB Saquon Barkley is a talented young player, he will likely be suffocated by the Eagles’ premiere run defense. With Barkley unable to move the ball on the ground, Manning will be forced to throw.

This is the crux of Philadelphia’s defensive success: can the pass rush get to Manning before he can connect with his receivers? The Eagles have had problems in their secondary since last year. With recent injuries and dramatics, Philadelphia is in even worse shape.

While Manning is a streaky quarterback, he has the potential to post big numbers on the right day. However, he drastically underperforms and turns the ball over under pressure. New York’s offensive line has not given him much assistance this season either.

While the Eagles’ pass rush has been quiet this year, if they can get to Manning on a consistent basis they should be able to hold them to about 20 points.

Second, the Eagles will need to score more than 20 or 24 points. Ironically, this is a serious concern for Philadelphia. With RBs Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles unavailable and potentially Corey Clement as well, the ground game will look to Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams.

The Giants on average give up 124 rushing yards; if the Eagles can exploit the opposing run defense and have success on the ground, the game is theirs. For this to happen, head coach Doug Pederson will have to commit to running the ball despite their injuries in the backfield and his desire to get their passing game back on track.

By running the ball on Thursday night, it will hopefully prevent Wentz from getting hit at the rate he has been and potentially open up the aerial attack.

New York Giants

New York is favored in this game by the skin on their teeth. They should be considered the favorites for more than just their home-field advantage. The Giants do not want to go 1-5 and have the talent to be 8-8 at least.

Whether the problems on the clipboard, in the locker room or their captain, the Giants are underperforming. There’s nothing like a divisional rivalry to bring out the best play in a team.

The Eagles secondary has let up an average of 276 passing yards a game. While this isn’t terrible, the yards they often give up are on big plays. Just this season, they’ve given up 18 20+ yard passes, and four 40+ yard passes.

These types of big plays are the Giants’ bread and butter. WRs Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard thrive against defenses like Philadelphia’s. OBJ has made a career of deep ball catches into the end zone and typically performs very well against the Eagles when he is healthy.

If Manning can find a way to utilize both of them on Thursday night, the Eagles’ secondary will not have an answer. The key will be New York’s o-line giving Manning the time and Manning having the wherewithal to find the open receiver.

Defensively, the Giants are high average despite their poor run defense. While their secondary is strong, their pass rush has been ineffective all season; the Giants are second worst in the league in sacks. It is a dangerous game to give Wentz time in the pocket to find an open receiver, especially a deep ball threat like Alshon Jeffery.

The Giants will need to bully the Eagles’ struggling o-line and get to Wentz in a timely manner. If they’re able to maintain the strong man coverage they have had this year, Wentz may be looking for a while for an open target.

Fantasy Implications

If you have RBs Ajayi and Clement handcuffed, now is the time to drop Ajayi and put Clement in your lineup if he was not already.  This could be a huge game for Clement and potentially Smallwood. Clement’s health should be taken into consideration when decided to play him.

While most fantasy owners don’t have Manning, they do have OBJ or Shepard. Both have the potential to go off on Thursday night depending upon Manning more than anything.

Photo Credit

Featured Image courtesy of Marco Catini

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