The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off a short week. They return to Lincoln Financial Field today after playing the Washington Football Team on Tuesday. The Eagles will play their second of three games in 13 days against the New York Giants — a team they lost to three weeks ago.
The Giants (4-10) are out of playoff contention; however, for the Eagles, today is a must-win if they want to stay in the running.
EAGLES VS. GIANTS PREDICTIONS
Alicia’s Pick: Eagles, 31-10
The Eagles are looking for revenge today as they play the Giants for the second time this season. Their last meeting was a disaster for those named Jalen. Hurts threw three interceptions, and Reagor reminded Philadelphia of Nelson Agholor — but worse. Point blank, the Eagles should have won that game.
Today they’ll be focused as Hurts will look to clean up his mistakes. Last week, the quarterback had a great game, completing 20 of 26 attempts for 296 yards and one touchdown. Hurts even added 38 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns of his own to give his team a 27-17 win. Hell, even Reagor had a season-high last week, completing three receptions for 57 yards.
Philadelphia also continues to hold the lead for the most rushing yards this season, averaging 165.6 per game. And today, we should expect nothing less. Head coach Nick Sirianni has cleared COVID protocols and will return to play calling from the sidelines. Offensive guard Landon Dickerson will also start.
As for New York’s offense, Daniel Jones is out for the season, leaving Jake Fromm as a starter. Fromm was on the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad three weeks ago.
Over the past five seasons, the Giants have the second-worst record (22-56) in the NFL. Fortunately, I don’t see them making a comeback in Week 16.
Drew’s Pick: Eagles 27-10
For the second week in a row, the Eagles get a sorely needed break. Instead of facing Daniel Jones — or even Mike Glennon — they get Jake Fromm, who will be making his first-ever NFL start. Last week, I said the Birds needed to make their luck count. That same logic stands today. The defense needs to be disruptive, and take advantage of a weak Giants O-line.
Another key component to victory is getting off on a start start. Philadelphia saw a 10-0 deficit early on in last week’s game. A better team would have surely made them pay for that. Perhaps we can chalk it up as rust, since the team had a bye week and then saw their game pushed back a couple days.
Regardless of the reasons, that kind of early letdown cannot happen again. We all know the Eagles have the worst tendency of playing down to their opponent – we saw it the first time these two met this season. Sirianni needs to have a dominant game plan off the bat, and capitalize on every scoring opportunity in order to ensure Fromm and the Giants — ranked 30th in scoring — don’t find themselves ahead.
Luckily, I think both things happen. I predict Jalen Hurts goes for another three touchdown game — while he inches closer to setting the NFL season record for QB rushing touchdowns — and the Birds go back to their Giant-destroying ways.
Kickoff is at 1 PM today.
