East Rutherford, N.J.—After the 30-10 Tampa Bay lost on Monday Night, coach Joe Judge and company went to work on tackling, tackling, and more tackling.
It worked, the G-Men defense intercepted Jalen Hurts three times and beat the Philadelphia Eagles 13-7 Sunday afternoon in front of a paid attendance of 73,969.
On a day the team retired the No. 92 jersey of Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, the New York Giants’ defense played under control and tackled in space as a team. When you have HOF in the building that tends to happen.
“Anytime that something like this happens, we want to make the players that played before us proud,” said safety Xavier McKinney. “That’s how we play. We’re going to fight on every down. It was something we saw the ceremony and we wanted to go out and dominate.”
The G-Men made the Eagles turn the ball four times, with running back Boston Scott losing a fumble that safety Julian Love recovered at the New York 40 with 1:34 to play in the contest.
The Giants got the team’s first opening-half shutout since December 2018 when it intercepted Jalen Hurts twice in the half. Linebacker Tae Crowder made a goal-line interception on a third-and-goal from the 1-yard line to closed the half out. It was the first time that the Birds had not scored in the opening half this season.
Place kicker Graham Gano missed from 51 yards wide right, ending a success streak of 12 in a row.
NY built a 3-0 lead on Gano’s 35-yarder in the first quarter. Tight end Chris Myarick, who played at Temple, made his first career touchdown catch halfway through the third quarter for the margin of victory.
The Giants responded after the firing of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett by ending the Philadelphia’s two-game winning streak.
Scott had scored on a 1-yard blast on the first play of the fourth to get Philadelphia within 10-7. However, the Giants remained gap sound and kept the Eagles receivers in front of them.
Gano drilled a 39-yard field goal on a possession that took 7:22 off the clock preceding the Scott fumble for the 13-7 advantage.
Philly, who had their third straight 200-yard game rushing with 208 yards, had one more chance to win the game in the final 1:11. They got a first down at the G-Men 27-yard line and had to spike the ball.
Hurts threw three sharp passes and nearly had receiver Jalen Reagor for a TD on second down with a sideline route on the left side of the end zone, he got his hands on it before dropping. Another pass to Reagor at the goal line on fourth-and-10 also was incomplete.
“Today, I put us in a bad situation with those turnovers I had in the first half, especially going in with the opportunity to get points before halftime,” said Hurts, who was 14 of 31 for 129 yards with 77 yards on the ground. “It’s something we have to overcome and we will.”
Hurts had thrown five interceptions all season until finding cornerback Darnay Holmes, linebacker Tae Crowder and safety Xavier McKinney. The one by Crowder hurt most, a goal-line pick on the final play of the first half.
Senior assistant Freddie Kitchens called the plays for the Giants, the offense was held to 264 yards but had the ball for more than thirty-two minutes and did enough to keep the Eagles at bay.
Giants coach Joe Judge said he spoke to the team about the Strahan jersey retirement.
“When you get a guy being honored like that you don’t want to go out there and lay an egg,” Judge said.
INJURIES:
Eagles center Jason Kelce missed the second quarter with a knee injury and returned in the third. He made his 117th consecutive regular-season start. Two holding penalties by backup Nate Herbig hurt on the last drive of the half, including one that nullified a 21-yard TD run by Boston Scott.
The Giants saw DBs Adoree Jackson (quad) and Holmes (chest) leave the game. Holmes had the first interception.
ALL IN WHITE:
The Giants wore their all-white uniforms, similar to what they wore from 1980-1999. It consists of white jerseys and pants with blue and red stripes, a “GIANTS” helmet decal instead of the familiar “NY,” and white facemasks replacing the customary gray.
UP NEXT:
Eagles: return to MetLife Stadium next Sunday to play the Jets.
Giants: travel to Miami to play the Dolphins on Sunday, the first of two straight road games.
