The Giants Are Expected To Rest Their Starters In Sunday’s Game
The Eagles need to win on Sunday to secure the top seed in the NFC, securing home field and a bye week. And to do that, they will need to get through the New York Giants. But it is looking like that will be a bit easier. As the reports coming from Giants media members is that the Giants will be resting their starters.
The #Giants and Brian Daboll have kept their cards close to the vest all week but yes, the expectation is key players will be sitting against the #Eagles Sunday. https://t.co/EkxfCKRFJG
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 6, 2023
The Giants secured their playoff spot last week. There is nothing for them to gain, or lose, by playing to win in this one. The assumption had been that they would rest their starters. But Brian Daboll is a first-year Head Coach. So there was not much to go on with how he would approach this situation. And he was not exactly forthcoming with information during the week on what his plan is.
But now we know that the plan is to rest key starters. Which is probably the right choice for them. And it obviously is hugely beneficial to the Eagles who need this game. While they already showed they can beat the Giants starters handily earlier in the season, playing the backups should make it much easier to get the win. The Eagles being 14-point favorites reflects that.
What will be interesting is to see how the Giants’ media reacts. We saw how upset they were a few seasons ago when it was the Eagles pulling their starters. Will they give Daboll the same amount of heat for damaging the “integrity of the game” as they did Doug Pederson when he pulled his starters from a meaningless game? And before they say that it is different because the Giants are resting for the playoffs, why would it be okay for a player whose team is already eliminated to suffer a major injury?
In both cases, it was a meaningless game for the team resting their starters. And in both cases the game did have playoff implications for the other team. Why should a team that is eliminated go all out to beat the other team to protect “the integrity of the game” but not a team that is still alive?
This is not at all a slight towards Daboll who is doing what is right for his team. It is only a dig at the over-dramatic Giants media members who acted like what Doug Pederson did was the worst thing a coach has ever done.
