Team Giants

Giants - Eagles Game 9 preview

Giants (7-1) vs Eagles (5-3).
Philadelphia extended their win streak to three games with a 26-7 win over down-and-out Seattle. The Seahawks were playing yet another game without quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, and they were missing Deion Branch and Lofa Tatupu. Donovan McNabb started slow with 10 incompletions in his first 13 throws, but then he got sharp and completed on his next 13 passes. McNabb finished up with 329 yards, and 2 touchdowns against 1 interception, and the Seahawks (2-6) may be finished for the year. The Giants treated their fans to a 35-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys. The defense played extremely well and the offense was able to convert three of their four takeaways into 21 points. They gave up four sacks and made some mistakes, but five trips to the red zone ended up in five touchdowns.

Philadelphia.
Despite the Giants 7-1 record, the Eagles playing at home are the point spread favorites. They also are a little bit desperate having already lost games to both Dallas and Washington, so a loss to the Giants would make them 0-3 against the division while giving the Giants a commanding 3-0 record. The Giants would have a two-game lead over Washington and a three-game lead over Philadelphia and Dallas. If Philadelphia wants to be in it, they'll have to go all this game. You know they'll be wanting to put the Super Bowl champs down in front of a national audience in their own stadium with all their fans cheering and doing all the things Eagle fans do.

Eagles Offense.
They are certainly a much better team playing with a fully healthy and mobile Donovan McNabb. He can escape and extend plays, and that puts pressure on the secondary. McNabb will need that mobility against the Giants effective pass rush, leading the NFC with 30 sacks, but even as you're chasing McNabb, you can't afford to take your eyes off Brian Westbrook. The ball ends up in his hands a lot, and in his last four games against the Giants, Westbrook averaged 142 yards from scrimmage, and 5.4 yards per rushing attempt. So far this season, Westbrook leads the Eagles in rushing with 96 carries for 422 yards and he also leads with eight touchdowns. He is second to rookie WR DeSean Jackson in receptions with 26. Jackson leads the team with 34 catches for 525 yards and has one touchdown.

Eagles Defense.
The Eagles are second in the NFC with 27 sacks and after seeing how Dallas worked the Giants offense last week (two fumbles, four sacks, one interception returned for a touchdown, and low passing yardage), they will be coming. They won't try to imitate the Cowboys ground protection which gave up 200 yards to the Giants. Last year in two games against the Giants, the defense saw the Giants have 54 carries and they allowed 194 yards. Focus on the run and you have to watch the air. Since he joined the Giants, Plaxico Burress has had 36 catches and 6 touchdowns and has averaged 17.6 yards per catch in his seven games against the Eagles. This year the Eagles have a secret weapon.

Cornerback Asante Samuel.
OK, so a free agent coming over from the New England Patriots for a six-year, $57-million contract isn't that much of a well kept secret. He is a weapon for his playmaking abilities. Over the past two seasons, Samuel has had 16 interceptions. That can make opposing quarterbacks hesitate when they think of throwing one his way, so there is the possibility that the defense could have Samuel shadow Plaxico Burress at times instead of giving him double coverage. That leaves one sneaky defender on the loose to cause mayhem. Another not so secret thing is that Plaxico Burress seems to be easier to cover since his recent fines and suspensions. He's averaged three catches for 24 yards over the past three games, with one touchdown, and doesn't seem to break free too often.

The weak link.
Sorry to say, but that would be Eli Manning for his performance last week. Sure he threw three touchdowns and had the offense working like clockwork at times, but there were those costly mistakes as well. On his way to a season-low 147 passing yards, Manning lost two fumbles and he threw one interception. There is also that bad habit of letting the clock run down to zero. That's a dumb way to lose 5 yards or to waste a timeout. Manning acknowledges, “We are going to have to be a lot better because we are playing a good team this week. We can't afford to have that many turnovers on offense." I would think the Eagles have picked up on Manning's recent tendencies and will do a bit of extraneous stunting in an effort to get him to slip up.

NFC East.
The Giants beat Dallas last week. The Eagles beat Seattle, and the Redskins lost to Pittsburgh. With the Cowboys and Redskins on their bye week and scheduled to play each other at Washington the following week, the Giants- Eagles matchup is the only (NFC East) game in town so to speak. The Giants play Baltimore next week and if you want to scout them (your TV permitting), they will be playing earlier in the day at 1PM at Houston. Also, the NFL announced that the Giants game vs. Baltimore on Nov. 16 will kickoff at 1PM, as was originally scheduled. When planning, remember that game times in the season's final seven weeks are subject to change because of the NFL's flex schedule policy.

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Notes.
Eagles and Giants are the only teams ranked in the top six in the entire NFL in both offense and defense.

Eagles have led at halftime in seven of their eight games this season.

Eagles Andy Reid is 4-5 vs. the Giants with Tom Coughlin as head coach.

Eagles lost both meetings against the Giants last season.

Eagles Andy Reid coached the team to 10 straight prime time wins, and was 16 of his first 17 from 2000-04.

Eagles have lost 13 of their last 15 night games.

Eagles have lost seven in a row in prime time,

Next Game
Nov. 16 Ravens at Giants at 1:00PM.
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