The Philadelphia Eagles’ decision to bench Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld and essentially tank their Week 17 matchup to the Washington Football Team, handing them the division title in the process, did not sit well with many Giants players.
Yet, at least one Giants player held a different perspective.
Logan Ryan, who after Sunday’s win over the Cowboys was already texting Tom Brady about a potential playoff matchup with the Bucs, said that the Giants do not have much of a right to be angry at the Eagles.
“There will be a lot of opinions about whether they were trying to win,” he told NBC Sports’ Peter King. “You want to play the game to win, but I don’t play for the Eagles, I don’t coach for the Eagles. It’s their team. Winning six games doesn’t give us much right to get pissed off about this. We didn’t play consistent enough all year to earn it.”
A 6-10 team had never reached the playoffs in the history of the NFL, and had the Eagles beaten Washington, the Giants would have become the first to do so, holding a three-way tiebreaker over Washington and the Cowboys for the NFC East.
But the Giants also put themselves in a situation where they did not control their own destiny and had to rely on other teams to do the work for them. There were instances throughout the season had there been one more catch made, or one more defensive stop, perhaps the Giants would not have been in this situation.
In the end, Ryan tipped his hat to the Washington Football Team.
“Give credit to Washington,” he said. “Ron Rivera, what he’s been through, and Alex Smith, his journey. Wow.”
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