A quick scroll through Giants Twitter on Sunday night let you know just how angry the fan base was. Despite a 6-10 season thanks to a lackluster offense, New York's victory over the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon gave them a real chance at the postseason. And they had an even realer chance to sneak into the playoffs had the Eagles kicked a field goal on 4th-and-4 late in the second half and left Jalen Hurts in the game.
But alas, this was not how it went.
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But it might feel like a small consolation to know that Giants coach Joe Judge is right there with the rest of the fan base. The first-year head coach went on an impassioned rant, stating unequivocally that he would never put his team in a lesser position to win over the course of a football game.
Of course, it's worth noting that the Eagles had nothing to play for and that several key players, including Miles Sanders and Fletcher Cox, were inactive. But while it would have been a different story if the Eagles fielded a group of backups and then actively tried to bring home a win, it's a little harder to see the justification of starting Jalen Hurts and then taking him out in favor of Nate Sudfeld in the final quarter of play.
Pederson told SportsRadio 94WIP that he wasn't benching Hurts with the intention of losing the game, and that the move was part of a plan he and the team had all along.
"It appears that yeah, that probably to the public eye that I benched Jalen Hurts," Pederson told Angelo Cataldi on Monday's 94WIP Morning Show. "I had a plan all week and my plan was to go into this football game, number one to win the football game, bottom line, hands down—win the football (game). But also, we had a number of young players that were playing in this football game and I wanted to see these guys. And Nate [Sudfeld] having been here since 2017 the opportunity to play and so I felt at that time to give him the opportunity to play.
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Would Pederson's actions have been different had a higher draft pick not been at stake? Would Judge really not have behaved the same way in that scenario? We may never know, but we do know what both coaches are saying publicly, and it's sure to fuel the debate further.
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