Giants completely flipped script on Eagles in key area during dominating win

If the Giants slipped on midnight green uniforms and started flapping their arms like wings, it still wouldn’t have been as spot-on an Eagles impersonation as what actually happened on Thursday night.

Against an opponent that has built its franchise identity around dominating the line of scrimmage — and pushed the Giants around twice per year for about a decade — Big Blue rushed 39 times for 172 yards and four touchdowns in the 34-17 upset of the Eagles. The offensive line allowed only three quarterback hits.

On the other side of the ball, the Giants held former teammate Saquon Barkley to an average of 2.7 yards on the final 10 of his 12 carries, and generated 16 pressures (three sacks) on Jalen Hurts.

“That’s the way we want to play,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “We want to play physical. We want to try to control the line of scrimmage. It’s a very important part of the game.”

No need to remind the Eagles, who likely will retire the jersey numbers for offensive linemen Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson (still active) as well as defensive linemen Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox in the near future.

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In winning 14 of the previous 17 meetings, the Eagles outrushed the Giants (156 to 107 yards per game) and created more quarterback pressure (47 to 41 total sacks).

Those numbers were flipped on their head for one game, and are perhaps a harbinger of a more competitive rivalry in the Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo Era.

There is no asterisk for Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter and left guard Landon Dickerson missing the game because there was none when the Giants were without left tackle Andrew Thomas or edge Kayvon Thibodeaux. Center John Michael Schmitz Jr. (concussion) missed the final 32 snaps Thursday.

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“Props to the guys up front for all the effort they gave me and this team,” Skattebo said after running for 98 yards and three short-yardage touchdowns.

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Skattebo became the first player in the NFL this season to have at least 18 carries in a game without a rush for zero or negative yards. He gained 47 yards against boxes with at least eight defenders, per NextGenStats.

By scoring Skattebo touchdowns on all three of their trips inside the 20-yard line — not to mention Dart’s touchdown run from the 20 — the Giants climbed out of the NFL basement in red-zone efficiency.

“It’s something we’re building and working on,” left guard Jon Runyan Jr. said.

“We’ve always been able to move the ball since I’ve been here, and we struggle to get over the hump and score in the red zone. The offensive line is very good. We played a super complementary game … and everything clicked.”

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To no surprise, the return of Thomas, to left tackle, from a 13-game absence has had an elevating effect on the offensive line. He has allowed two pressures (no sacks) on 130 pass-blocking snaps in four games, per Pro Football Focus.

“I feel like we’ve been protecting our a–es off,” right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said. “But Dart is really good at making something out of nothing.”

Take this sideline interaction between Eluemunor and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney as an example of the responsibility felt toward protecting the spark plug Dart.

“Dart loves those QB runs,” Eluemunor said. “Seeing him get hit, I go up to Shea like, ‘Stop f–king running him! He’s like, ‘He f–king wants to run!’ I’ll shut up then. My bad.”

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But that’s only half the story.

The defensive veterans also took two key steps last week: Urging coordinator Shane Bowen to be more aggressive in his calls and holding a players only meeting to reinforce focusing on the details. The result was two takeaways.

“As a rookie quarterback, to have a defense play that hard, to make big plays,” Dart said, “that helps me out a lot.”

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With Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter, the Giants finally have a defensive line capable of winning snaps against the Eagles offensive line of three Pro Bowlers (Johnson, Dickerson and Cam Jurgens) plus vastly underrated left tackle Jordan Mailata.

You wouldn’t have guessed that stopping the run has been a two-year issue for the Giants — a partial credit to the recent return of defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches, who missed three games due to an injury.

After the Saints averaged 2.9 yards per carry in Nunez-Roches’ first game back, Barkley had six of his 12 runs stuffed for one yard or less.

“We didn’t want Saquon to get off because he has the ability to hurt you really bad,” Burns said. “Trying to keep him under wraps. And when it was our opportunity to get after Hurts, we did that.”