As New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh’s father, legendary college coach Jack Harbaugh, likes to say, “Who’s got it better than us?”
No phrase could more precisely describe the feeling in East Rutherford as the Giants return from their bye week having won without playing a snap.
While the Giants were watching from their living rooms, results around the NFC East fell perfectly in their favor.
The Dallas Cowboys suffered a crushing overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals after Jacoby Brissett was benched and kicker Chad Ryland missed an extra point that would have won it in regulation.
Several hours later, the Giants also got some help from the Washington Commanders, who trounced the struggling Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football, leaving the other three division members with at least four losses. Meanwhile, New York sits pretty at 4-2-1 coming off the bye.
Harbaugh’s Giants are returning with growing belief in their chances to win the division and potentially make some noise in the postseason, but that all starts in Week 9 as they visit the Philadelphia Eagles for an important rivalry game with some sour history for the franchise.
And as the team returns with fresh legs and the trade deadline looms, SI’s Conor Orr continues to ride high on the Giants, lifting them two more spots to No. 15 in his latest MMQB NFL power rankings poll.
It’s no bold statement to say Philadelphia hasn’t been a friendly place for the Giants in one of their biggest rivalries.
Not only have the Birds dominated the regular-season series for much of the past decade, winning 13 of 17 meetings dating back to the start of the 2016 season, but they’ve also held down the fort at Lincoln Financial Field, winning every contest against the Giants since 2013.
Granted, the Eagles have been in the midst of a successful run in that timeframe, including five first-place finishes in the NFC East, eight playoff berths, and three Super Bowl appearances, two of which ended in championships.
That Philadelphia team hasn’t been seen this season, though. The Eagles got off to a hot start at 2-0 but have since lost six straight games, falling into the division’s last-place hole as mounting injuries have taken away key players on both sides of the ball.
The most notable absence is quarterback Jalen Hurts, whose season ended after Week 5, when blood clots were discovered during an evaluation of a cleat injury suffered the week before against the Rams.
Without Hurts running the show, the Eagles have struggled to keep up with their opponents in recent weeks. Philadelphia’s offense has dropped to 30th in points scored and 32nd in total yardage, both their worst rankings since 2020, the last time they finished last in the NFC East.
It hasn’t just been the quarterback situation that has led to their downfall. Running back Saquon Barkley has also been dealing with a hamstring issue that is limiting him in games, and the Eagles’ offensive line lost some serious strength when right tackle Lane Johnson abruptly retired.
The Giants won’t feel any lost love for the Eagles when they head down I-95 to battle their heated rivals and seek their second division victory of the season. With a weakened Eagles offense compared to a rising offense led by J.J. McCarthy, it’s fair to call this New York’s best chance in years to break the curse in Philadelphia.
Just over a year ago, the Giants hung close with the Eagles behind the talents of then-rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo, whose rushing kept Philadelphia’s defense honest as the Giants led 14-10 late in the second quarter.
Not long after, the contest went south as Skattebo suffered a horrific season-ending ankle injury, and the vibes were sucked out of the Giants in what finished as a 38-20 rout that hastened the end of Brian Daboll’s tenure as head coach.
The Giants will return without a few key pieces, including Dart, who is out with a season-ending knee injury, and a potentially thin backfield, as they look to shake their little-brother status in this division series.
What they do have now is the right coaching in Harbaugh and a more capable quarterback in McCarthy, who proved to be the right starter two weeks ago in the win over Houston.
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