The Giants are mad the Eagles “tanked” away their game against Washington on Sunday night, a decision by the Eagles that resulted in getting them a higher draft pick, but also in the Giants being eliminated from the playoffs.
It is easy to see why the Giants are upset. They have not won a playoff game in nine years. They’ve been to the playoffs just once since 2012. It is understandable that the idea of finally getting into the postseason was exciting. After all, the franchise has had a winning record only two times in nine years, so success is not something they have experienced much recently — and with six wins, this was their best, most exciting season since 2016.
You would think the Eagles would be sympathetic to the Giants’ excitement about getting in the playoffs, considering they know how fun it can be to get to the playoffs. The Eagles have got to experience the postseason plenty recently, having been there three times in the last four years, which happens to be four times the amount of trips to the playoffs the Giants have made in nine years.
The Giants are so upset the Eagles cost them a trip to the playoffs that on Monday head coach Joe Judge ripped into the Doug Pederson’s team, calling their decision to pull Jalen Hurts and put in Nate Sudfeld “disrespectful to the game.”
Judge and the Giants, however, should spend less time worrying about the Eagles — and more time worrying about the reasons they cost themselves a trip to the playoffs:
1. They Kept David Gettleman: The Giants willingly employed a general manager this season that was 9-23 in his first two years with the team and is now 15-33 overall. That same general manager bragged prior to this season that they had hired “four computer folk.” Reports indicate that the Giants plan on keeping Gettleman for the 2021 season, and chances are this strategy will result in the team getting yet another top-10 draft pick next season.
2. They Drafted a Running Back At No. 2 Overall: Never forget -- the Giants drafted perhaps the most easily replaced position in the NFL with the No. 2 overall pick when they selected Saquon Barkley in 2018. Barkley is a special player, no doubt, but it remains a terrible use of an elite resource. To no surprise, the Giants have gone 9-25 with Barkley on the field since drafting him — and have had a top-10 pick in each of the two seasons he has finished.
3. They Lost Their First 5 Games: If the Giants wanted to make the playoffs maybe they shouldn’t have lost their first 5 games of the season. Or six-of-their-first-seven games — including a loss to the Eagles. Not losing three-straight games in December when the playoff race was heating up would have helped their chances of getting into the postseason — and not left them praying that a rookie quarterback could beat one of the best defensive lines in the NFL in his fourth career start.
4. They Were Terrible On Offense: In a league built for the offense to succeed, the Giants were 31st out of 32 teams in points scored. That is worse than even the Eagles’ terrible offense. Making matters worse is the fact that the Giants were so bad on offense after spending a top-10 pick on that side of the ball in three-straight drafts. They were somehow held to single-digit points four times. A strategy of simply scoring more points — something their computer folk should be able to figure out — might have lead to a trip to the playoffs.
5. They Dropped Easy Passes: The Giants had an issue catching the ball all season, as they finished seventh in the league in dropped passes. In fact, a good example of how their drops cost them came against the Eagles. If tight end Evan Engram catches this pass, the Giants might not have put the fate of their season into an Eagles team with 17 players on injured reserve:
6. They Couldn't Score In The Red Zone: The Giants weren't able to finish the job when it came to getting into the postseason, which isn't surprising, considering they couldn't finish when it mattered all season. The Giants were 31st in the NFL in red zone offense this season, scoring a touchdown in only 46% of their trips inside the 20. In fact, if the Giants would have finished this trip in the red zone against the Eagles instead of falling down, they might not have needed a team starting backups in 16 of 22 starting spots on Sunday night to win:
7. They Lost More Games Than They Won: If the Giants didn’t lose 10 games, and win only six, they would be in the postseason. A good strategy they might want to consider next year to get into the playoffs would be to worry less about what the Eagles are doing and worry more about winning more games.
That is a pretty simple reality Judge might want to focus rather than going on rants about how his team didn’t get the help they wanted from a 4-11-1 team to get into the playoffs.
