The Giants are eager to get another crack at the Eagles in Philadelphia this weekend. Philadelphia won the two regular-season meetings, including a meaningless Week 18 game for New York, but the playoffs are a different animal.
The Eagles are rather heavy favorites in this one with the point spread at 7.5 and the moneyline around -360, implying a 78% chance to win. Some members of the national media think the Giants can get it done, but there are others that think the Birds will run away with it.
Two of those people are Pittsburgh’s Andrew Fillipponi and Chicago’s Danny Parkins of the Audacy Original Podcast “1st & Pod” as the duo thinks it’ll be a double-digit game and an “a– kicking.”
“This is the game that I love for the favorite,” Parkins said (11:57 in player above). “I think Philly wins this game by 20-plus. I think it is an a– kicking. I think that they looked bad without Hurts and then Hurts played banged up in Week 18 and gutted out a win where he was clearly still in some pain and he didn’t run at all. And now he’s had two weeks of rest and we will see him run and the Giants do not have two weeks of rest and they’re on the road and Philly will be going nuts and they obviously know each other very well, and I think they kick the s–t out of them. I don’t think this game is close.”
The Eagles already beat the Giants by more than 20 once this season, 48-22 back in Week 14 at MetLife Stadium. However, the Giants had a few guys banged up – including Kayvon Thibodeaux – and Hurts was healthy. Will that be enough of a difference in this matchup?
“I like them to win the game by more than 10,” Fillipponi said. “I think there are two ways for these teams like the Giants to go into a place like Philly as an underdog in this round and win. Either the favorite has their own internal battle with their own confidence where it’s not going to take much for them to start to second guess themselves in a game. Or, conversely, the other team just buys into the fact that they’re so good and better that they’re not intimidated,” à la the Ravens team that beat Peyton Manning in 2013.
“Those Ravens teams had a mentality. When they went into places like this they didn’t care that they were a touchdown underdog,” Fillipponi continued. “Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs and those guys, they didn’t back down from anybody. Do you feel that way about this Giants team? I don’t.”
The Giants were questioned all year long and a win over a Vikings team last weekend shouldn’t change that too much.
“All year we called them frauds and now we’re saying they’re going into Philly and winning when Philly’s coming off a week of rest?” Parkins said. “It seems ridiculous.”
“I still don’t trust the Giants enough where if the Eagles put the game on a silver platter for them, I’m not convinced they run away with it,” Fillipponi said. “I think it would still come down to the end of the game because the Giants are an imperfect team and I don’t think that they’re – even though they’re well-coached – I don’t think they’re above doing some dumb s–t in this game either.”
The NFC East will have at least one team in the championship game next weekend with the winner of this one on one side. It could be another NFC East matchup next week as well if the Cowboys upset the 49ers in San Francisco.
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