PHILADELPHIA — The Giants were looking for a sweep, but the Eagles mopped the floor.
Instead of sending any kind of NFC East table-turning message, the Giants lost a piece of their heart and soul Sunday when Cam Skattebo suffered a season-ending dislocated ankle within a loss that likely ended any sense of suspense to their season.
An injury-ravaged defense had no answers for Jalen Hurts (four passing touchdowns) or Saquon Barkley (two touchdowns) and the Giants fell 38-20 to the Eagles. The Giants failed in their bids to sweep the season series for the first time since 2007 and win at Lincoln Financial Field for the first time since 2013.
“We have to start figuring out ways to win because I hate it, and I’m not used to it, and I’m not just going to accept it,” rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart said after throwing for 193 yards, accounting for two touchdowns and surviving an overturned fumble. “I thought they really kind of dominated most of the game, and it’s an embarrassing feeling.”
Dart willed the undermanned Giants to stay competitive into the early fourth quarter. His in-the-bucket third-and-long completion to third-string running back Devin Singletary set up a field goal to cut the deficit to 24-13.
Want more evidence? Trailing 31-13 and taking hit after hit on telegraphed passes, Dart rose to his feet to throw an in-stride 68-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton on fourth-and-11 with 9:36 remaining.
Or so it seemed.
AP
“If I score that, we’re [maybe] down 10 with plenty of time left and one of the better defenses in the NFL that will probably get us a stop,” Slayton said. “We’re definitely in striking distance.”
Slayton instead was penalized for a controversial offensive pass interference — he and Quinyon Mitchell were hand-fighting with the ball in the air — to replace the not-out-of-it-yet touchdown with a punt.
“Earlier in the game, I had a deep ball on the same guy and I felt like he was holding me then,” Slayton said. “I couldn’t get my left arm through. So, the second time around, I’ll be damned if he gets my arm twice. In my head, I just fought to get my arm through and catch the ball.”
The Giants trailed by as many as 25 points as Barkley (150 yards) and Tank Bigsby (104 yards) fueled a 276-yard rushing day.
“The defense got our ass whooped,” edge rusher Brian Burns. “I hope everybody takes that with a chip on their shoulder and allows it to fuel them.”
Sixteen days after he was held to 58 yards rushing by his former teammates in a loss, Barkley wasted no time letting it be known that the rematch would be different. He ran for a 65-yard touchdown on the second Eagles offensive snap: Darius Muasau and Rakeem Nunez-Roches were cleared out of the hole and safety Tyler Nubin looked stuck in cinder blocks.
“That speaks to why you have to start fast,” linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “You show a very good team like that there’s a potential big, big hit like that, they are going to Rolodex through all their runs.”
The Giants (2-6) have dropped two straight after an upset of the Eagles (6-2) created an illusion of turning a corner.
“We definitely saw how they celebrated when they beat us last time,” Barkley said. “There’s a revenge mindset that lasts for five minutes, and then it goes back to your habits.”
Barkley’s second touchdown came after the Giants were on the wrong end of a bang-bang call in a 7-7 game.
Hurts converted a fourth-and-inches via the Tush Push, but Kayvon Thibodeaux ripped the ball away before Hurts touched down in the pileup. Officials ruled that Hurts’ forward progress was stopped and the ball was dead, so head coach Brian Daboll challenged the spot of the ball and lost on replay review.
“Sounds like some bulls–t to me,” Thibodeaux said, “and that’s the hard part about the situation,”
Disaster struck the Giants with 8:11 remaining in the second quarter.
Skattebo, who scored a first-quarter touchdown, suffered a dislocated right ankle when he was brought down by Zack Baun on an incompletion. Giants teammates immediately dropped to a knee and turned away from the gruesome sight of Skattebo’s foot turned in the wrong direction.
“Feel absolutely terrible for the young man,” Daboll said. “You have to be ready to go, next man up. So, no excuses in that regard. It never will be.”
Hurts threw three touchdown passes in the final 31 minutes, including two to Dallas Goedert and one to Jahan Dotson when he climbed the back of the recently reacquired Korie Black.
The Giants played the entire second half without 60 percent of their ideal secondary: Cor’Dale Flott (concussion) was sidelined after Jevón Holland and Paulson Adebo did not make the trip because of knee injuries.
“With football, it’s like 80 percent mindset, 20 percent physical skill and ability,” Thibodeaux said. “But, at some point, mindset is not enough. You have to go make the plays.”
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