Ranking the Giants' Last 7 Losses to the Eagles By Devastation

A look at the losses in the Giants' seven-game losing streak to the Philadelphia Eagles as New York looks to change the narrative starting Thursday night.

First-year Giants head coach Joe Judge, a Philadelphia native, is rooted in the deeper history of this rivalry but hasn't been around it for its more recent lopsided history. But now he will look to lead the Giants' past their struggles against his hometown team, struggles that have manifested in a seven-game losing streak. 

Here is a look at the dark chapter in history that Judge will be looking to help bury on Thursday night, as we rank all seven losses in the Giants' agonizing current losing streak to their division rival. 

7. Dec. 17, 2017 | Eagles 34 - Giants 29

It was the first of three rough Decembers for the Giants in 2017, and arguably among the most turbulent they've ever had as an organization. 

After entering the season with expectations of contending for the division crown, the Giants spiraled into bottom feeders competing for the first-overall pick by the time of their Week-15 home game against the Eagles.

The Giants were just two games removed from the in-season firing of former head coach Ben McAdoo following the infamous benching of Eli Manning. 

At 2-11, the Giants faced the 11-2 eventual Super Bowl champions in what was supposed to be a formality for the conference-leading Eagles.

However, Manning did his best to distract Giants fans from their pitiful season with a 434-yard and three-touchdown performance in a back-and-forth duel with eventual Super Bowl MVP quarterback Nick Foles. 

For four quarters, the Giants may have even looked like contenders, going tap for tap against a historic Eagles team. 

But in the end, they didn't have the juice to finish the job, as a potential go-ahead touchdown drive fell short, stalling on a failed fourth-down conversion attempt at the Eagles' 11-yard line. 

Still, the Giants' performance was a spirited one by a team that had been dragged through the dirt for 14 weeks, and Manning's performance offered enough proof that he was worthy of returning as the team's starting quarterback the following year. 

What also makes this loss the least devastating is that the Giants didn't have anything to lose by that point, and all it ultimately did was help them land Saquon Barkley in the draft the following spring. 

6. Oct. 11, 2018  |  Eagles 34 - Giants 13

Speaking of Barkley, the very next entry in this rivalry gave the Giants' electric young star a chance to showcase his talents on a primetime stage. 

In a Week-6 Thursday night home game against the Eagles, Barkley racked up 229 all-purpose yards and a touchdown in a performance that included several jaw-droppingly elusive runs. 

Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com

The only problem is, the other Giants didn't do anything to complement their rookie's performance. 

Barkley's effort was wasted in a humiliating blowout that left the Giants with a pitiful 1-5 record against an Eagles team that appeared to be amid a Super Bowl hangover. 

The Eagles came into MetLife Stadium with a 2-3 record and were anything but the world-beaters they had been when they faced the Giants the previous December. Yet, the Giants showed an even steeper regression in former head coach Pat Shurmur's first game against his former team. 

Things got ugly right from the get-go as Manning's second pass of the game was interested by Kamu Grugier-Hill and returned for a touchdown. 

From there, the Giants never really recovered, as Manning got sacked four times, and the offense failed to execute in the red zone, while the defense allowed Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz to throw for three touchdowns. 

Every loss is devastating in its own way, especially blowouts. But at least Giants fans were warned right from the get-go that things wouldn't go their way that night, and those that had Barkley on their fantasy teams could walk away with their own wins. 

5. Dec. 22, 2016  |  Giants 19 - Eagles 24

This is the one that started it all.

In the only entree on this list where the Giants came in as the better team, the underdog Eagles rose to the challenge in a win that set the course where this rivalry would go over the next three years.

The McAdoo-led Giants came into Lincoln Financial Field on a Thursday night with a chance to clinch a playoff spot and secure their first season sweep over the Eagles since 2007.

The Giants nearly pulled it off, coming back from an early 14-point deficit to pull within five in the fourth quarter. However, a pair of questionable no calls on incomplete passes to wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. cost the Giants a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown, and Philadelphia held their ground at home.

The frustration of the loss took a particular toll on Beckham, who infamously threw a tantrum after the game and needed to be consoled by team officials.

Odell Beckham was growling to himself, losing it outside locker room. Team security & John Mara guided him into locker room eventually pic.twitter.com/ebdB8dH787

— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) December 23, 2016

Beckham finished the night with 11 catches for 150 yards but obviously wasn't satisfied with the game's outcome. His reaction was just another example of the behavior that resulted in his eventual ousting from the organization. 

The loss itself wasn't too much of a consequence for the Giants. They still made the playoffs as the fifth seed regardless of whether they won the game. Still, the loss itself could be seen as a turning point in the trajectory of where these two franchises have gone in recent years. 

4. Dec. 29, 2019  |  Eagles 34 - Giants 17

The Giants missed out on a chance to clinch a playoff spot in Philadelphia in 2016, but the Eagles clinched a division crown and then some when they came to MetLife Stadium last December, and Giants fans have had to sit with the taste of this one in their mouths for the last ten months. 

The Giants season had long been over by this point, as they sat at 4-11 with a lame-duck Shurmur at the helm.

Still, there would be some solace in finishing the season with a third straight win and the satisfaction of knocking the Eagles out of the playoffs. 

The Giants found no such satisfaction, instead letting a close game slip away into an ugly blowout late with an emphasis on the "ugly."

This game's attendance slowly descended into an Eagles fan takeover of MetLife Stadium throughout the game and by the fourth quarter. 

Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com, NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

The Giants closed out their last game of the decade with cries of "E-A-G-L-E-S" raining down on them in their own building along with actual rain, as the weather conditions came to match the emotional state that what few Giants fans in attendance must have been feeling at the time. 

The imagery of the scene epitomized the type of decade the 2010s had been for the Giants pretty accurately, and one that took its toll on the big-picture legacy of the rivalry as well. 

For decades the Giants had led the all-time series record against their bitter rival, years of lopsided results yielded the Giants falling behind in that series earlier that month. 

The Giants had a chance to even things back up in Week 17 but instead fell two games behind in the all-time series, leaving Judge with some serious ground to make up this year. 

3. Nov. 25, 2018 | Giants 22 - Eagles 25

It had been a while since the Giants enjoyed a two-game winning streak going into their Week 12 matchup against the Eagles in 2018. It had been even longer since they'd enjoyed a three-game winning streak. 

They've still been waiting for that feeling ever since, after blowing a 16-point lead and what would have been their third-straight win. 

Had the Giants held onto that lead, they would have tied the Eagles record at 4-7 and would have even been within striking distance of first place in a weak NFC East. 

Instead, the Giants illustrated their nearly-perfected science in blowing late leads under Shurmur's leadership, allowing the Eagles to mount a dramatic season-changing comeback. 

Philadelphia's comeback was capped off by a last-minute field goal by kicker Jake Elliott (not the last time he'll show up on this list), as the Eagles would notch the first win of their late-season surge that propelled them to a playoff spot. 

Meanwhile, the Giants wasted another impressive performance in Barkley's rookie season. Barkley racked up 128 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown in the first half but only touched the ball five times in the second.

It was one of Shurmur's more questionable moments as Giants head coach as he took the ball out of the Giants' best catalyst for victory to that point in favor of spreading the ball around. As a result, the Giants only scored three points in the entire second half. 

The Giants would go on to win two in a row after the loss, which was a good reflection of their resiliency but had they held on to win that game, they might have put together a five-game winning streak and sparked their own run to a playoff spot.

But nope, it didn't happen. 

2. September 24, 2017  |  Giants 24 - Eagles 27

Who knows how history would have unfolded if kicker Jake Elliott hadn't made that 61-yard field goal?

The 0-2 Giants and the 1-1 Eagles seemed bound for overtime in Week 3 of 2017 after a thrilling fourth quarter. 

The Giants mounted an electric surge with 21 unanswered points, spearheaded by Beckham and Sterling Shepard, to take a 21-14 lead. 

The Eagles then tied the game on a Corey Clement rushing touchdown, and the two teams traded field goals in the closing minutes. 

With seven seconds left, Wentz made one last-gasp pass to Alshon Jeffrey, who fell just out of bounds at Giants 43-yard line, setting up a 61-yard field goal attempt for a rookie Eliott. 

Wentz famously said on the sideline that he would give his game check to the rookie had he made the kick and had to put his money where his mouth was after Eliott connected to give the Eagles a stunning win. 

Here is how Jake Elliott's 61-yard field goal to give the Eagles a stunning 27-24 win over the Giants looked from the press box. pic.twitter.com/m4IMHxfvDk

— Keith Groller (@KeithGroller) September 24, 2017

The kick would spark the Eagles to a nine-game winning streak en-route to the organization's first Super Bowl championship, while the Giants stumbled to a 3-13 record, the franchise's worst record of the Super Bowl era. 

The Eagles have made the playoffs each of the past three years since then, while the Giants have the worst record in the NFL in that span.

That kick certainly was not the sole reason for those outcomes, but it has since become emblematic of where the two organizations have gone in recent years. 

1. Dec. 9, 2019  |  Giants 17 - Eagles 23 (OT)

Rock bottom.

There's no other way to describe where the Giants were as an organization after last December's Monday-night meltdown in Week 14. 

To put how damaging that loss was into context, it marked the Giants' ninth-straight loss that year, tying the organization's longest losing streak with the epic 1976 skid, all but assuring Shurmur's eventual firing. 

It was also the loss that initially put the Giants under .500 all-time against the Eagles. And maybe worst of all, Manning, the Giants' beloved franchise passing leader and two-time Super Bowl MVP, fell under .500 for his career as a starting quarterback with the loss.

It was also how the game unfolded that ensured the emotional devastation of the loss, as fans were likely dialed in until the very end when Eagles tight end Zach Ertz caught the walk-off touchdown pass untouched to drop the Giants to their franchise low. 

Giants week, 2019 OT thriller @cj_wentz to @ZERTZ_86 for the winning score. #aatbirds #Eagles #flyeaglesfly #SetTheTrends #philly #nygVphi #football pic.twitter.com/0L4UU9raGm

— All About The Birds (@AATBirds) October 20, 2020

Manning, who was re-inserted as the starting quarterback in place of an injured Daniel Jones, appeared to be putting together a feel-good night for the Giants, leading the team to an early 17-3 lead before halftime.

Manning's inspired performance included a pair of touchdown passes to rookie wide receiver Darius Slayton, including a 55-yarder, the longest touchdown pass Manning had thrown since 2017. 

But that would be the last score the Giants found all night. The Eagles scored 20 unanswered points in a victory over the Giants that, once again, sparked them to a playoff run. 

It's just been that kind of stretch for the Giants in this rivalry over the years, and fans will be desperately hoping that Judge can reverse those fortunes starting this Thursday night in Philadelphia.