The Eagles Saturday Night answered a lot of questions!
by John Kincade
Emphatic! Decisive! Dominant! I’ve run out of descriptive words to discuss the utter dominance that was on display Saturday night at the Linc as the Eagles dismantled the hapless NY Giants. It seemed logical to many that the Giants were a legitimate opponent to give the Eagles a run in their Divisional Round matchup. I just never saw it. I didn’t get why the Giants were all of a sudden the media darlings. It was explained to me that the reason was all of the question marks surrounding the Eagles. Well, the question marks are now exclamation points. The Eagles we saw playing most of the season reappeared at the best possible moment. It’s bad news for everyone else.
How would Jalen Hurts shoulder respond after he looked rather ordinary vs the Giants in Week 18? Well, that was obviously an over discussed point of contention leading up to this game. Nobody knows what kind of pain that Hurts is playing with. What we now know is that he’s looking as good as new. Hurts delivered early on a deep pass to DeVonta Smith and then used his arm and feet to punish the Giants all night long. The ball had zip, he had 6 design runs in the first half of action, it was a thing of beauty. Shane Steichen had an outstanding plan for Hurts and they delivered. To lead a playoff game 28-0 at halftime is absurd. It was because of the aggressiveness of the game plan. Bravo for believing in your guys and letting them determine the outcome.
The 28 first half points were ridiculous, but the goose egg posted on the Giants side of the scoreboard was just as impressive. The defense was flying all over the place. They were aggressive and just soft enough. They battered Daniel Jones, caused a critical interception and denied the running game. It was almost unfair. Nick Sirianni had fun afterwards mocking the sports radio mob that constantly attacks Jonathan Gannon. He had the last laugh and helped pen this victory story.
Lane Johnson looked like Lane Johnson. He was crazy good and showed no ill effects of his injury. The rest and rehabilitation certainly has proven effective. He was perfect on the night not allowing a pressure, a sack or even Jalen Hurts breaking a sweat. That was one of the biggest concerns going into the game and now it shouldn’t even get discussed.
The Eagles played a complete game. They toyed with the Giants in the second half and managed to eventually wait them out and even created a score differential in their favor in the second half. It was a jaw dropping performance. It’s hard to imagine that any opponent from this point forward could be handled as easily as the Giants were. They were clearly not ready for the big stage. The best part of it all is that none of that will matter. We learned that if the Eagles bring their A game they are once again dominant. Nobody will be able to shut them down. Limit mistakes, run the ball and play defense. This team has every reason to expect an upcoming trip back to Arizona.
