Philadelphia – Talk about a star lineup.
On the fifth anniversary of an emphatic 38-7 NFC Championship win over Minnesota, the Eagles repeated the same kind of dominance by knocking out the New York Giants by the same score in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Philadelphia will now host the NFC Championship Game against the winner from San Francisco and Dallas on Sunday.
The Eagles scored on their first offensive possession of the game and never looked back as Jalen Hurts completed all five of his passes, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert.
Like the Vikings five years ago, the Giants played the road apple from there, losing to the Eagles for the third time this season.
bulls
Jalen Hurts – It’s a win or go home playoffs that means if Hurts was at 100 percent or not, the Eagles have the full plate installed on offense, and the QB1 delivered despite being limited for the final month of the season with a joint SC sprain in his shoulder Throwing.
On the first drive of the game, Hurts completed all five of his passes to three different receivers, including a scoring punt from 16 yards, and he also turned it in twice making things much more complicated for New York defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
The Giants should have conceded the white flag there.
training Most of the hype was in the work Brian Dabul and his coaching staff got the Giants lacking in talent to this point. Despite this, the Philadelphia crew put up a clinic with Shane Steichen as the New York defense had its heels for the entire first half and Jonathan Gannon made Daniel Jones’ life miserable.
30 minutes to zero – that was the story of Giants who would have had a hard time trying to play a worse half of football. The score was 28-0 at the break with the Eagles outscoring the Giants 258 to 64, including a 140 to 20 advantage on the ground. The lead in first place was 18 to 3 in favor of the Eagles and New York only turned in a third.
Bragging rights Penn State – Miles Sanders played caddy for Saquon Barkley with the Nittany Lions and continues to do so both from a pedigree and reputation standpoint, but Sanders was the best running back on Saturday night, running for 90 yards on 17 carries. The centerpiece of the Giants offense, Barkley was seven yards on four carries when it mattered. All the damage to him was done in the long trash time.
Lynn Johnson Played All-Pro through a torn adductor muscle in the groin area, he looked like his All-Pro self, helping Philadelphia run for 268 rushing yards and keep Hurts a clean while in the pocket.
Boston Scott Phishing – Wink Martindale claimed Boston Scott is not a Giants killer and that’s all the New York defensive coordinator did right. Scott didn’t have much traffic, carrying it six times for 32 yards, but one of them was a three-yard catch. Scott has now scored TDs in all nine games he has played against the Giants and 11 of his 18 career scores have come against New York. Eagles like tweaking New York with Scott.
Clet Blackman – The Eagles are now 14-1 when Blackman is the referee in their matches.
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Trops It’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.
The exact opposite is true because the team that sweeps the home-and-home series is usually better and plays the third round at home. That was the case here and if this had been a boxing match, it would have been conceded early. Teams shoot for the three-game sweep as the home team is now 14-6 in such situations during the Super Bowl era.
John McMullen contributes coverage of the Eagles to Eagles Today at SI.com and is an NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, along with legendary sports talk host Judy McDonald every morning from 8-10 on “Birds 365,” streamed live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show ‘Football 24/7’ and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen