Eagles Take 20-3 Halftime Lead Over Giants

Philly benefits from two short fields thanks to special teams.

The New York Giants trail the Philadelphia Eagles 20-3 at halftime of their Christmas Day showdown at Lincoln Financial Field.

Welcomed into his first taste of the Giants-Eagles rivalry, quarterback Tommy DeVito and the Giants received the football at the 25-yard line to open the game, but the possession went nowhere fast. The Giants’ drive went dead in three plays and one yard gained, leading to an early punt and even further disaster on the next play of the night.

On the ensuing punt, Jamie Gillan booted the football 41 yards to the Eagles’ 33-yard line, and chaos unfurled on the return. Specialist Britain Covey broke several tackles to take the ball back to the New York 13-yard line for a 54-yard return, and suddenly Philadelphia was already in scoring territory.

With Jalen Hurts and the birds taking over, the Giants did their best to silence the talented offense and its secret weapon on the goalline in the “tush push.” However, after two attempts at the mosh pit style play, the Eagles found payday and took an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Looking to shake off the rough start and respond to Philadelphia’s early punch, DeVito and the Giants were able to find some success and get the ball into scoring range for new kicker Mason Crosby. New York moved the ball ten plays and 41 yards in nearly four and a half minutes, setting the stage for the veteran leg to boot a 52-yarder through the posts to cut the lead to 7-3.

As the first quarter headed towards the second, a series of bad tackling and chunk plays from the Giants defense nearly allowed Philadelphia to post another six points in a relaxing fashion.

Hurts and the Eagles went a long 16 plays and 77 yards in over eight minutes and nearly had a second touchdown with running back D’Andre Swift, who was down short by contact on second down, leading to a Jake Elliot field goal and 10-3 home advantage.

Unfortunately, the damage would only be saved for the following Eagles' possession as the Giants went three and out again in under two minutes. Taking almost half the time and the same amount of plays, Hurts found DeVonta Smith on a 36-yard crossing route, which the receiver took the house for the second Eagles’ touchdown and a 17-3 advantage with over 10 minutes left in the second quarter.

It took the visitors nearly 23 minutes to accomplish this minor step, but the Giants finally forced the Eagles to punt the football on their fourth drive of the contest, with just three plays and -4 yards behind a couple of big pressures by Dexter Lawrence.

That change of scenery was followed up with a decent Giants drive of their own, converting a couple of fourth downs behind Saquon Barkley. Yet, on the third attempt, the Eagles knew what was coming and silenced the brief momentum on a 4th-and-1 handoff to Barkley right outside of the red zone to keep any late points from touching the scoreboard for New York.

To end what would be a fully dominant Philadelphia first half, the Eagles drove the football down to the endzone for their third visit of the afternoon. On the 10th play of the possession, Hurts scrambled for nine yards and fell just short of the endzone, albeit drawing a delay of game penalty on the Giants defense and setting his team up for a field goal and 20-3 lead at the halftime whistle.

BLUE NOTES

DeVito went 9-of-16 for 55 yards and an average throw of 3.4 yards with one sack in the first half. Hurts has 11 completions on 19 attempts for 156 yards and a touchdown.

Barkley leads all Giants rushers with 14 carries for 43 yards and an average rush of 3.3 yards. Hurts also leads Philadelphia’s ball carriers with his own six rushed for 35 yards.

Tight end Daniel Bellinger is the Giants leading receiver with three catches for 23 yards and an average of 7.7 yards. Smith is the Eagles’ best ball hawk in the first 30 minutes with the same hauls for 71 yards and a touchdown.

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