Philadelphia Eagles hang on to beat NY Giants on Christmas

PHILADELPHIA — After nearly letting a 17-point halftime lead slip away for good, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Giants 33-25 on Christmas. It was their 12th consecutive victory over the Giants and snapped a three-game losing streak. Now at 11-4, the win also keeps the Eagles as the favorite to win the NFC East.

The Giants, meanwhile, fell to 5-10 and could once again be turning to a new starter at quarterback after Tommy DeVito was benched at halftime for backup Tyrod Taylor.

Here’s a breakdown of the Christmas clash:

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles and their fans were hoping Monday’s game against the Giants would serve as a get-right game after dropping three straight.

While they did pull out a win, their performance cannot exactly be described as confidence-inspiring.

Untimely miscues have been a theme of late, and Philadelphia committed a couple of them in the second half. They lost a fumble on the opening kickoff in the third quarter, and quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six to Adoree’ Jackson when tight end Dallas Goedert stumbled making a cut, allowing the Giants to pull within two.

Hurts and the offense responded with an 8-play, 75-yard scoring drive to help pull out the win and avert disaster. But the feeling in the stadium was less that the Eagles are back on track and more like they were fortunate to be playing a bad team.

Silver lining: Fortunately for the Eagles, they have the easiest closing schedule in the NFL with a home game against the 3-12 Arizona Cardinals up next before wrapping up the regular season at the Giants. With the Cowboys (10-5) having dropped their last two games, Philadelphia is the favorite to claim the NFC East.

Buy a breakout performance: Britain Covey has been among the leaders in punt return average for much of the season, but had his best game of the season with three returns for 66 yards, including an electric 54-yard return to set up an Eagles score on their first possession. The second-year player out of Utah also saw a bump in playing time at receiver and hauled in his first NFL catch.

Promising trend: With linebackers Zach Cunningham and Nicholas Morrow sidelined due to injuries, Shaquille Leonard got the start and registered his first sack since the 2020 season while adding a couple tackles for loss and a QB hit. Back issues have hampered the former All-Pro player of late, but he offered some hope Monday to a beleaguered linebacker corps.

New York Giants

There was no fairytale ending for Tommy DeVito on Christmas. Instead, he was benched at halftime in favor of Tyrod Taylor.

The benching wasn’t because of injury; it was a coach’s decision based off ineffectiveness.

DeVito went 9-of-16, passing for 55 yards in the first half, and the Giants trailed 20-3. So Daboll went to the veteran Taylor instead of the undrafted rookie who had taken the area by storm.

Taylor led them to a touchdown on his first drive by handing the ball to running back Saquon Barkley three straight times. He later threw a perfect ball for a long touchdown to wide receiver Darius Slayton.

DeVito’s performance on Christmas likely marked the end to what was a fun story. The local hero, who famously lives at home and felt so relatable to a large portion of the Giants’ fan base, won three straight starts in late November into early December. He has seven touchdown passes to just one interception.

QB Breakdown: DeVito — 9 of 16 passing for 55 yards with 0 TD, 0 INT — averaged just 1.1 air yards. The Giants offense had 101 total yards in the first half. They also had 101 total yards in the fourth quarter last week in a loss to the Saints.

Taylor — 7 of 16 passing for 133 yards with 1 TD, 1 INT — hit a 70-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton for the longest Giants play of the season. But he also missed two key, relatively easy third-down passes that stalled drives.

Troubling Trend: Giants vs. winning teams. The Giants have a long way to go before they are going to be taken seriously. This loss is just the latest example. They have now lost all seven games they’ve played against teams currently with a winning record. Five of those have been by double digits. This season was supposed to be about closing the gap on the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Instead, the Giants have been outscored 122-42 in three matchups against Dallas and Philadelphia. It shows just how far away they are from being able to compete in the NFC East, nevertheless the NFC. Big offseason upcoming.

Silver lining: Better draft pick. After a brief ray of hope several weeks back when they won three straight, the Giants are now back in the mix for a really high draft pick. They’re the favorites to draft fifth in the upcoming NFL draft, according to ESPN Analytics. The Giants came into Monday with a 63.3% chance of landing in the top 5. That will only increase, especially considering they will be big underdogs in their final two games against the Los Angeles Rams and Eagles.

Pivotal play: Each week it seems like the Giants special teams has a costly negative play. In this instance it was allowing a 54-yard punt return by Covey after a three-and-out from the New York offense to start the game. This put the Eagles at the Giants’ 13-yard line, and two plays later it was 7-0. The Giants special teams came into Monday ranked 22nd in EPA at -7.18. The continuous struggles put into question whether coach Brian Daboll will really want to roll it back next season with Thomas McGaughey as the special teams coordinator.