East Rutherford, NJ — Christmas came early for the New York Giants as they get their second win of the season against the best team in the NFC East, the Philadelphia Eagles. The win wasn’t just an unusual one for the Giants but it was even more rare when you consider they won without scoring a single touchdown. “The way this season has gone we’ll take it, a win is a win. Our defense played a hell of a game today against a great opponent. They made the right plays at the right time for us.” said coach Jeff Jarin following the win.
The defense did show up, as it shut down the Eagles offense by holding them to just 158 total yards of offense, the lowest for the Eagles this season. The only big play the Giants gave up was in the 3rd quarter when Eagles HB Darren Sproles broke lose for a 50 yard run, setting up the Eagles second and last field goal of the game. The defense was especially good at pressuring Eagles QB Carson Wentz. Wentz had just 67 yards in this game, the lowest since the Eagles week 8 loss against the San Francisco 49ers. He completed just 7 of 16 passes and was picked off once late in the 4th quarter by SS Landon Collins.
But, besides the Giants strong defense, the other star of this game was Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas who single handedly got all of the points needed to win this one. Rosas tied his season high field goal attempts with 4 and made 3 field goals for a second time this season. “It’s great when you make those big field goals. Especially with how some of these games have gone for us. Hopefully we can build from this going forward and finish these next few weeks on a positive note.” said Rosas.
Eli Manning threw for 133 yards, completed 15 of 20 passes and although he threw zero touchdowns for a second straight game, he threw zero interceptions for only the 3rd time this season, the first since the Thanksgiving loss against the Washington Redskins.
The loss for the Eagles snapped their three game win streak within their division and it drops them to 9-5. Depending on what happens between now and the end of the week, the Eagles 2 game lead over in the division could shrink to just 1 with 2 remaining.
As for the Giants. They can finally put their heads up as they snap a 9 game losing streak. They’ll be on the road next week to take on the Arizona Cardinals.
