The pivotal plays from the Eagles’ Week 8 pummeling of the Giants

Round 2 went much, much better for the Eagles.

Saquon Barkley finally had his big day with 150 yards rushing and two touchdowns (before exiting with injury), Dallas Goedert caught two touchdowns himself on National Tight Ends Day, Jalen Hurts continued to stay steady through all of it, and the defense? They had a lot of sacks racked up on Jaxson Dart by the end of it.

The Eagles pummeled the Giants, 38-20, on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

There was no repeat of that Meadowlands embarrassment from two weeks ago. Instead, the Eagles put up their most dominant effort of the season by far, moving them to 6-2 on the season and into a Halloween bye week to recoup

Here's how they did it…

There it is

Three plays in, and Saquon Barkley was gone – finally.

Barkley took the handoff, cut back to his left through a massive hole, and with a couple of extra blocks in front of him, took off down the sideline with no one able to catch him.

See ya, @saquon 👋 pic.twitter.com/9bjActkYiR

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 26, 2025

It was a 65-yard touchdown run to begin the day, an immediate 7-0 Eagles lead, and after weeks of waiting for it, finally, that home run swing from Barkley that felt so routine a year ago.

Have another

The Eagles played with a bite to their game that just wasn't there when they last faced the Giants two weeks ago.

Following Barkley's opening touchdown run, the Eagles' defense immediately forced Jaxson Dart and the Giants into a three-and-out on the back of a Jalyx Hunt stop at the line on a Dart scramble and then a screen that was plugged up right away on third down by Zack Baun.

The Eagles took the ball back, and even with a banged-up offensive line, they executed on a great screen to Barkley that carried them forward for 12 yards in what eventually led to a long field-goal try for Jake Elliott.

Then the refs started getting… questionable.

Elliott missed the kick off the right post, but a whistle blew while the ball was in the air. It didn't lead to anything, though, and Nick Sirianni had his complaints on the Philadelphia sideline.

The Giants used that and flipped it into a drive that ended on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Dart to breakout rookie Cam Skattebo for the 7-7 tie.

But at least the refs were inconsistent for both sides?

It came back for the Eagles on the ensuing drive.

On a 4th and 1 "Tush Push" way into Giants territory, Jalen Hurts got the yard he needed, but New York edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped the ball away in the pile-up. The refs, though, ignored that, even after a lengthy challenge process that left it at Giants coach Brian Daboll's turn to be upset.

The Eagles kept possession and flipped a second touchdown to Barkley, this time on a 9-yard lob into the open for a 14-7 lead.

.@saquon TOUCHDOWN (again) pic.twitter.com/OCRKjYdsKq

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 26, 2025

At the same time, Barkley was well on his way to breaking for over 100 rushing yards and 130 all-purpose yards before the half.

TDs on TE Day

The Eagles retook the lead and looked to have considerable control over the first half in what was a far cry from two weeks ago in the Meadowlands.

The Giants, in their own regard, didn't have a lot of favors going for them either.

They entered Sunday in Philly banged up, and it got even worse when Skattebo went down in a pileup with what immediately registered as a pretty gruesome leg injury that would require him needing to be carted off.

It was an awful situation for Skattebo, and for the Giants, you could feel how it just took the wind out of their sails.

The Eagles and Giants exchanged punts pressing late into the first half. New York managed a 47-yard field goal from Graham Gano to cut the Eagles' lead to four, but Hurts and the offense had an answer.

They ran a tight two-minute drill setup well from a 32-yar kickoff return by Will Shipley. Barkley kept finding his space for runs of 10, 6, and then 5 yards, and Hurts made two big first-down completions to DeVonta Smith to get in close before finding tight end Dallas Goedert on a route to the inside for the touchdown before the break.

Happy Holidays#NationalTightEndsDay pic.twitter.com/O9Cz40WnNk

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 26, 2025

Goedert's score gave him a new career-high in touchdowns on the season with six, and gave the Eagles an 11-point lead that Elliott stretched to 14 on a lengthy seven-minute drive to begin the second half.

Dart and the Giants would find their faint flashes of life, and a few more points, but losing Skattebo and even suffering a couple more injuries after just proved too much. They're still too thin of a team.

The Eagles, on the other hand, had their bumps and bruises, too, and were without their starting center in Cam Jurgens and their star receiver in A.J. Brown, but they were on a mission.

They knew how bad they were two weeks ago, know how good they should be, too, and never seemed intent on the idea of another Giants upset.

So they come out fierce, and once they took control, they didn't let go.

The defensive front found a groove and kept Dart on the run from pressure with sacks from Hunt, Baun, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, and then a strip sack from Josh Uche.

Hurts and the offense got back into last year's rhythm of extending second-half drives to drain out the clock, and Barkley's long-awaited big day kept going up until he pulled up limp on a 28-yard run out of bounds, which will be a postgame concern now, but with the silver lining of the bye week ahead.

Still, the Eagles kept going.

Tank Bigsby subbed in and pulled off an insane first-down run right after a Hurts sack way backwards set the Eagles up with a 2nd and 31.

Tank Bigsby picks up the first down on 2nd & 31
NYGvsPHI on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/dhfL54Zxoa

— NFL (@NFL) October 26, 2025

A few plays later, Hurts returned the favor with another touchdown pass to Goedert for 17 yards, which made it a 31-13 game and essentially iced it.

Making the most of his favorite holiday https://t.co/gqhazroCnH pic.twitter.com/XzVVXW1oLu

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 26, 2025

The Eagles coasted to 6-2 and a bye week breather from there, just not before Dart got thrown into the grass a few more times and before Hurts got to complete a beauty of a pass to Jahan Dotson late for one more score – with all due credit to an incredible contested catch by Dotson.