Eagles-Giants preview: Five things to watch

The Philadelphia Eagles will face their first NFC East rival of the season on Sunday, when they will make their yearly trip up the NJ Turnpike to play the New York Giants. Here are our five things to watch.

1) Eagles RB Saquon Barkley vs. his former team

One of the big stories heading into this matchup from a drama perspective will be Barkley's return to MetLife Stadium, where he played for the Giants for the first six years of his career, and where there will be a whole lot of Giants fans who remain bitter toward him for signing in free agency with arguably their most hated rival.

Barkley was bottled up in Week 6 against the Browns, but he is still ranked third in the NFL in rushing yards per game (96.4), and he is still averaging 5.3 yards per carry.

In each of the last three full seasons during the Joe Schoen / Brian Daboll era, the Giants' run defense has been trash.

In 2024, the Giants are allowing 116.3 rushing yards per game, which is 15th best in the NFL. Progress! Well, sort of. They're still allowing 5.24 yards per carry, which is second-worst. They've simply played four of the top seven most pass-happy teams in the NFL in the Seahawks (1), Cowboys (2), Browns (5), and Bengals (7).Here's what the Eagles have done against the Giants on the ground during the Schoen/Daboll and Jalen Hurts eras.

In conclusion, the Eagles should run the ball.

2) Eagles backup LT Fred Johnson vs. Giants edge rusher Brian Burns, and the interior vs. Dexter Lawrence

The Giants lead the NFL in sacks, so it's not the best time to be without star LT Jordan Mailata. The Eagles have two options to replace him:

1. They could move RG Mekhi Becton to LT and have Tyler Steen fill in at RG.
2. They can simply replace Mailata with Fred Johnson.

They will likely do the latter. Johnson has been very shaky in the three games the Eagles have needed to play him this season. Grain of salt, but PFF has him down for the following stats:

Johnson's game against the Bucs was particularly alarming:

When Fred Johnson started at right tackle for the #Eagles in Week 4, he allowed the highest single-game pressure rate (29.7%) of any offensive lineman this season https://t.co/vxfFqrasGn

— Dallas Robinson (@DallasDRobinson) October 13, 2024

By comparison:

Kellen Moore was asked on Tuesday what, if anything, the Eagles have to change against the Giants to account for the loss of Mailata.

"Yeah, these guys have done an excellent job of getting after the quarterback," Moore said. "It's something we've got to be aware of. I think this is a really, really sound defense. They are sound in their coverage plans. They let the front four rush. They blitz you just enough to keep you honest and have to handle all different variables. So, this will be a big challenge for us. They have done an excellent job. Jordan has obviously been playing some really, really good football. We are fortunate to have Fred here and the different types of guys that we can put in there, however this thing plays out.

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"New Orleans was a great example. We need guys to step up. They stepped up. Fred stepped up phenomenally on Sunday. Even in the last play, he's one-on-one with 95 [Myles Garrett] and there's a risk component associated with that, and he did an excellent job."

So, Moore had nice things to say about Johnson, but very clearly, going from Mailata to Johnson is a major downgrade. Facing off against Johnson on Sunday will be Brian Burns, who the Giants traded for this past offseason. Burns had a strong performance on Sunday Night Football against the Bengals Week 6. The Eagles would be wise to give Johnson a lot of help on Sunday.

As for the interior of the Giants' defensive line, Dexter Lawrence is awesome. He was an All-Pro the last two seasons, and so far in 2024 he has 7 sacks in 6 games. Here are those 7 sacks:

Powerful beast. The Eagles have a good interior O-line, but they'll have their hands full.

We should note here that Burns (groin) and Lawrence (hip) did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday, but both players told Giants reporters that they would be good to go on Sunday.

3) The Eagles' secondary vs. the Giants' improved wide receiver trio

The Giants' receivers in recent years have sucked. They haven't had a receiver top 800 yards since Odell Beckham in 2018.

This year, they're better. No. 6 overall pick Malik Nabers has shown early on that he was worthy of his high selection, as he has 35 catches for 386 yards and 3 TDs in 4 games.

Otherwise the Giants have Darius Slayton, who has been the best of a bad group of Giants receivers over the last 6 years. He has 24 catches for 301 yards and 1 TD. And then there's target magnet slot receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, who has 37 catches for 280 yards (just 7.6 YPR) and 2 TDs.

Darius Slay injured his knee Week 6 against the Browns and did not return. His status is to be determined on Sunday after missing practice on Thursday. The Eagles' two rookie corners, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, have shown promise so far this season, with Mitchell having a larger sample size than DeJean.

4) Where might the Eagles go Feastin'™️? 🍗

The Giants' offensive line looks like this, when healthy:

The Giants' offensive line gave up 85 (!) sacks last season, the second-most in NFL history. They've been better this season, fielding four playable linemen, and a very good LT in Andrew Thomas, who is by far the Giants' best offensive lineman.

Thomas' season is over, as he needs surgery for a Lisfranc injury.

The Giants have four backup linemen on their 53-man roster — Evan Neal, Joshua Ezeudu, Aaron Stinnie, and Jake Kubas. You can eliminate Stinnie and Kubas from consideration in replacing Thomas in any way.Neal played LG at Alabama in 2019, RT in 2020, and LT in 2021, before the Giants made him the No. 6 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He has been a major bust so far. It was reported a couple weeks ago by Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News that Neal has been exclusively working at RT.

#Giants O Line coach Carmen Bricillo said the team is still only working Evan Neal at right tackle. Not at guard. Bricillo’s only explanation was that it’s Neal’s natural position, in the Giants’ minds. In referencing that it’s still early, he also said it’s only been “2 weeks.”…

— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) October 4, 2024

Maybe the Giants will insert Neal directly in at LT, but that feels unlikely. One of their other options would be to play Neal at RT, and move Eluemunor over to LT. Eluemunor has played 421 snaps at LT over his career, including 125 snaps there with the Raiders last season. Eluemunor has played well so far at RT, so I'm sure the Giants don't want to disrupt his momentum there, but they might not have a better choice.

If the Giants don't want Neal on the field, they could also plug in Joshua Ezeudu at LT. Ezeudu filled in for an injured Thomas last season (6 games, 5 starts), and he was awful, giving up 5 sacks on just 181 pass block snaps, per PFF. He also committed 6 penalties.

Whatever they do, the Giants seem woefully unprepared to replace Thomas.

#FeastinMeter™️: The Eagles sacked Deshaun Watson five times last Sunday, so maybe there's some hope for the Eagles' pass rush yet. Still, we'll stay conservative on the FeastinMeter™️. Five turkey legs. 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗

5) Special teams

Both of these teams have had their struggles on special teams this season. Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay referred to three "catastrophic" plays this season.

"It falls on me to get rid of these catastrophic plays that have happened for us," Clay said. "There have been three really bad plays that mar some good special teams plays that we have had. Again, when you have three catastrophic plays, those are things that do kill a season, kill a team right there. We have to make sure we get rid of those going forward against the Giants."

The three catastrophic plays Clay is referring to:

1. The punt that was blocked against the Saints.
2. The time that Isaiah Rodgers pushed a defender into Cooper DeJean while DeJean was trying to field a punt, resulting in a muffed punt and Buccaneers recovery.
3. The field goal block on Sunday against the Browns.

Those three plays happened in the last three games, and on three separate special teams units (the punt team, the punt return team, and the field goal team). Not great!

The Eagles are ranked 27th in special teams DVOA. The Giants are even worse, at 29th, but their struggles have partly been due to injury, as they have been without K Graham Gano for four games, and punter Jamie Gillan for one.

But the Giants have also made big plays on special teams, one of which won them a game.

On that play, Dexter Lawrence held down the RG, who Isaiah Simmons then hurdled and blocked the kick. That's precisely what the Browns did to the Eagles last Sunday, with Myles Garrett being the hurdler:

They did the Giants FG block, shoving down the snapper and had Myles Garrett jump over lol
If executed right, it’s unstoppable pic.twitter.com/N3dVcOTrxA

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) October 13, 2024

The Eagles cannot have a catastrophic special teams event wreck this game.

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