Since 1933, the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Football Giants have played football together. And for equally as long, they have despised each other. The teams that sit only 90 miles down the turnpike from each other always circle the day they play each other on the calendar before the season. The history is there. The hatred is there. And of course, the passion is there.
We can go back and forth with Giants fans all day. Three Miracles at the Meadowlands this, 4 > 1 that, but the rivalry has heated up in the past few years. The birds are 20-6 against New York in their past 26 matchups putting the all-time record at 88-86-2 in favor of the Eagles. The Giants this year will be looking to even out that record, and perhaps have the anger to do such.
Week 17, 2020
Early in the day, the Giants beat the Cowboys to put them in the position to make the playoffs if one result happened: The Eagles beat WFT. The Giants only were able to be in that position because of the embarrassing loss the Eagles had to the same Dallas squad a week prior, which eliminated them from playoff contention. The Giants now needed to root for a 2020 Philly team that had already thrown in the towel. Washington on the other hand were in control of their own destiny. Win today, and they play Tom Brady next week. Washington had been winning crucial games down the stretch led by a tenacious defense and the heroic determination of Alex Smith and Ron Rivera.
The Eagles were never going to win this game. One look at the inactive list tells you all you need to know. Miles Sanders, Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett, Desean Jackson, Carson Wentz, Dallas Goedert, Richard Rodgers, Alshon Jeffery and Jordan Mailata were all scratches with injuries at a varying level of severity. The Eagles would have to roll out second and third stringers against a team vying for playoff contention. At first, it looked promising for Giants fans. a 30 yard strike to JJ Arcega-Whiteside and 2 Jalen Hurts rushing TDs kept the game competitive. But in the third quarter, coach Doug Pederson inexplicably benched Jalen Hurts while down by 3, and Washington would go on to bully backup QB Nate Sudfeld to a 20-14 victory. What’s worse: Giants players, coaches, executives and fans had to watch this game on prime time.
The meltdowns were tasty. The saltiness of Giants fans that night on Twitter made that night one to remember. They all believed the Eagles intentionally threw that game for better draft positioning. To be fair, at that point in the season that is what Eagles fans were clamoring for. But come on. We all knew that Jalen Hurts or Carson Wentz were going to be the future of this team. After starting 7/20 passing, why would we risk injuring our QB of the future to win a meaningless game to send one division rival to the playoffs over another? That logic does not make sense. Even Giants coach Joe Judge was pedaling the conspiracy:
But all in all, it did not mean much. Doug Pederson was fired, Washington lost in the first round to the eventual Super Bowl champs, and the Eagles traded back from the pick they got (more on that later). The only part of that night that perpetuated was the animosity between the Eagles and Giants.
Devonta Smith
On March 30, about a month before the draft, Howie Roseman traded from the number 6 pick to the number 12 pick in the draft with the Miami Dolphins. This put us right behind the Giants in the draft order, much to the chagrin of Eagles fans. There was a certain skinny wide receiver from Alabama that both teams coveted, and now we basically were giftwrapping him to a rival. But it seemed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was on the Giants hate train too. On draft night, the Eagles traded with the Cowboys to land the 10th overall pick, leap frogging the Giants. And with the 10th pick in the 2021 NFL draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select…
… You can infer how Giants fans handled that one. After we selected Devonta Smith, they traded back with the Chicago Bears to select Kadarius Toney, a shifty receiver out of Florida. While Toney has had his flashes thus far, he has failed to stay healthy enough to contribute to his team. They could’ve stayed put and drafted Micah Parsons, who looks to be not only in the conversation for Defensive Rookie of the Year, but even Defensive Player of the Year. Dallas instead took him at 12.
Giants fans then tried to paint the narrative that because of Smith’s stature that he would be injured easily. As if they weren’t pounding the table for him. Of course, this has only made the Eagles fanbase root for him harder. As a rookie, Smith leads the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns, and would also lead the Giants in all three categories with his current stats.
2021
The Eagles will now head into the Meadowlands to face off against the Giants who have disappointed this year. After big free agent signings, the Giants were supposed to be frontrunners to win the NFC East, but alas, they are in last place. The Eagles have won three of their last 4 and look to keep up the hot streak. But this game is not as cut and dry as it appears.
The Giants fired OC Jason Garrett who objectively was holding this team back. Instead, they will rely on Freddie Kitchens, the former Browns head coach. Kitchens likes to run a more vertical offense, which will benefit supposed star wide receiver Kenny Golladay who made a name for himself on deep balls. It will be a hard task for Eagles’ young Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon to stop an offense they haven’t seen on film.
Both teams need a win today. It’s gonna get ugly. Players will leave it all on the field. And I personally cannot wait to watch every minute of it.
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Jish Sokolsky is a featured writer at The Birds Blitz. For more from Jish, check out his archive and read through our Eagles articles for the latest news about the Birds.
