When the Giants went in at halftime tied 3-3 – the first time in 174 meetings between themselves and the Eagles that there was a 3-3 score at the half – they had a little bit of momentum and believed they could’ve been on their way to a second defense-led win over Philadelphia in the span of a month.
Eleven game minutes, three drives for each team, and a handful of Giants mistakes later, it was 20-3 Philadelphia and the rest was history.
“We just didn’t execute; we have to execute and make sure we keep the momentum rolling. We let some plays slip away and it ended up going their way,” linebacker Lorenzo Carter said after the game.
“At halftime we were where we wanted to be on defense. We wanted it to be a really gritty, grind it out kind of game. Up until the half we were doing that,” added safety Julian Love. “Now it's just finishing the game. We didn't execute the way we were in the first half.”
Carter wouldn’t say that that the Eagles’ lead felt insurmountable at that point, or when the Giants punted to give the ball back to the hot Philly offense with two minutes left in the third, instead noting that their focus is always on stopping the other team from scoring, no matter what the scoreboard says on any column.
Head coach Joe Judge, to a man, agreed.
“I saw our defense consistently take the field with the right demeanor and the right attitude. I really did. They made some shots and chunk plays in the second half, but the one thing about our defense that I'm always proud of is that they never decide when they're going to take the field, but they always decide how they're going to take the field,” Judge said. “They always decide to take it with the right demeanor, and they play as a unit together. They did a lot of things to keep us in the game today. Then obviously when you can't do anything offensively to get the ball moving, that sets you behind and there's not too much more that the defense can do to hang on there.”
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It’s that much tougher when the offense is consistently going three-and-out and sending the defense back on the field, or in a situation like the one the Giants faced where their offense ran more plays on their fourth-quarter TD drive (17) than they had on the previous five drives in the half (16) – while the Eagles had run 24 and scored 31 points to that point.
Unless, of course, you ask a Giants defender.
“I try not to deal with what's going on with the offense. I really just try and be the best I can be on defense, special teams, and where I'm on the field,” Love said matter-of-factly.
Added Carter: “We have to play complementary football. Sometimes the offense has our backs in a tough spot, and sometimes we have theirs, but at the end of the day we have to go out there and play for each other.”
And, it doesn’t help when you hurt yourself with costly penalties, like Love did by grabbing Jalen Hurts’ face mask at the end of a six-yard run that moved the Eagles into the red zone on their final offensive touchdown drive.
“I was confused on that play. I don't know what they called, something with the helmet. It was ticky-tacky to me, but they called it so it was a penalty, unfortunately,” Love said.
No matter what anyone says, though, what happened is that momentum swung, the Eagles put the Giants in a hole they couldn’t get out of (whether they felt it was insurmountable or not), and Big Blue ended up on the business end of another beating.
“Obviously you can't start the second half off with a turnover. Then we didn't have a good punt and then on coverage, we missed a few tackles which gave them good field position there, and all of the sudden it's 13-3,” Judge said. “It's still a two possession game with a lot of ball to play, and that can't be a situation where all the sudden it feels insurmountable. We just have to go ahead and play one play at a time, one drive at a time and keep playing the game.”
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This one, their fourth loss in a row, unofficially officially put an end to their season, eliminating them from the perilous playoff possibility they had coming into the game. That means that it’s time to play out the string, two more games before it’s on to 2022.
“It’s the last two weeks for this team. We just have to go out there and enjoy it, play ball for each other, and keep fighting,” Carter said. “I’ve never doubted this team will fight for each other.”
There’s still a lot to be learned, though, at least in Love’s eyes.
“This one is tough because it was a division game, but the guys who are ready to work and ready to put this team first show up on Wednesday.
They get the corrections that they're going to get, guys are coachable, and so far we're taking steps forward as a team,” Love said. “That's all we look for.
That's what Coach Judge preaches. He has a thing about looking in people's eyes, who's going to fold and who's going to step forward. I know a lot of guys are going to decide that in these next couple of days for sure.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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