As the Eagles prepare to face the Giants for the second time this season, here are 5 stats to get you ready for this NFC East contest.
Giants’ last 3 losses have been by a combined 6 points
Say what you want about the 2-win Giants, but they’ve played hard every week despite their lack luster record. Especially as of late, staying competitive in each of their last 6 games.
The Giants last 3 losses — Buccaneers, Eagles , and Cowboys — have only been by a combined 6 points. We all know what happened in the Birds game, too. The Eagles miraculously came back from down two scores to win it in the final 6 minutes of regulation. The Giants outplayed the Eagles for the vast majority of that game, that’s something Eagles fans shouldn’t just gloss over.
Joe Judge may not be the best X’s and O’s coach in the NFL, but he certainly knows how to rally his team to play hard for him each and every week. We should expect no different this week.
Wentz is 7-1 against the Giants in his career
Carson Wentz has struggled immensely this season, but throughout his career he’s always had the Giants’ number. His best stat line of 2020 came against the Giants just a few weeks ago, when he threw for 359 yards, 2 touchdowns, with a QB rating of 91.1.
In his career Wentz holds a 7-1 record against New York, with his lone loss coming in the first game he ever faced the Giants. He’s thrown for 11 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 2,179 yards, and has a 91.9 QB rating against the Giants all-time. Granted, the Giants haven’t been very good since Wentz has entered the NFL, but they’re still a divisional opponent we see twice a year, so the fact that Wentz has consistently been able to beat them is commendable.
Coming off the bye week and heading into the crucial second half of the season, it would be nice if Wentz could keep this trend going when his team travels to New York this Sunday.
The last time an Eagles CB recorded an INT was against New York last season
The Eagles cornerbacks just don’t force takeaways. Even with Darius Slay now in the fold, no Eagles corner has recorded an interception this season.
Interceptions often define how good a corner is, but just looking at INTs doesn’t paint the whole picture for a CB. Slay has been outstanding this year in coverage, allowing just 254 yards on 29 receptions with no touchdowns. Quarterbacks just haven’t thrown his way much at all this season, which obviously makes it difficult to record many INTs.
The last time an Eagles corner intercepted a pass was against the Giants in Week 17 of last season, when Sidney Jones picked off Daniel Jones in the final minutes of the game. Jones is prone to turning it over, so maybe he’ll toss an ill-advised interception to one of the Birds corners this week and end the streak he started last season.
Both Wentz and Jones are bottom-5 in QB rating this season
This one probably doesn’t come as much of surprise to anyone, but Wentz and Jones have been two of the worst starting QBs in the NFL this season.
They’re both bottom-5 in QB rating, with Jones (76.1) having the edge over Wentz (73.2) by 2.9 points. They’re both bottom-3 in interceptions (Wents:12; Jones: 9), the top-2 most sacked QBs in the league (Wentz: 32; Jones: 28), and they’re bottom-6 in completion percentage (Wentz: 58.4; Jones: 62.4). What a QB matchup we have here!
We’ll probably see another sloppy game from these two on Sunday.
Saquon Barkley has accounted for approx. half of the Giants offense in the 4 games he’s faced Philadelphia
This stat isn’t as prevalent to this week’s matchup since Saquon is out for the season, but it’s pretty astounding how big of an impact he’s had in every game he’s faced the Eagles.
In 4 matchups between 2018 and 2019, Barkley accounted for half of the Giants 8 touchdowns against the Eagles. He also racked up just over a third (38.1%) of the Giants offensive yardage when facing Philly in those 4 matchups. Without him in the lineup, the Giants couldn’t run the ball at all against the Eagles in their first matchup this season, tallying just 57 yards out of their backfield. Jones did have 97 yards on the ground, but nearly all of that came from his 80 yard scamper where he inexplicably tripped.
The Eagles should be thankful Barkely won’t suit up on Sunday. He’s truly been an Eagle killer throughout his short NFL career.