Belly Under

PHILADELPHIA – Unlike George Costanza, the Eagles did not enter their bye week on a high note, dropping their seventh consecutive game, falling to the New York Giants, 19-11.

In search of a spark, the Eagles turned to mobile, rocket-armed Joe Milton at quarterback. Milton, making his first NFL start, was uneven, but in fairness, many of the team’s offensive inconsistencies persisted.

After taking the lead with a Saquon Barkley three-yard touchdown with 2:09 remaining in the opening frame, the Eagles never again reached the end zone. The offense went just 5 of 18 on third downs, and punted on four consecutive drives coming out of the break (five straight when including the final drive before halftime).

Still, the offense had an opportunity to tie the game late, as the unit took the field with 1:32 remaining in regulation. In the end, the drive stalled at the Philadelphia 44, as Milton was dropped for a four-yard loss.

Quarterback Joe Milton completed 18 of 34 pass attempts for 169 yards and carried nine times for 64 yards. He used his legs to convert on the Eagles’ two-point try on their only touchdown of the afternoon. Running back Saquon Barkley, still battling through injuries to his hamstring and back, mustered only 22 yards on 13 carries. He scored the Eagles’ lone touchdown, punching it in from three yards out.

The leading receiver was rookie Makai Lemon, who reeled in 6 of 9 targets for 61 yards. Tight end Dallas Goedert, whose name has popped up as the NFL trade deadline looms, produced 50 yards on five receptions.

On defense, linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. led the way with 10 combined tackles, while fellow linebacker Zack Baun followed close behind with seven. Baun also notched a pair of sacks before exiting the game early with a back injury. The Eagles compiled five sacks against the Giants, with Baun, Jonathan Greenard, Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter each getting home.

The Eagles inactives: WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring), LB Jihaad Campbell (hamstring/quad), WR Dontayvion Wicks (ankle), CB Jonathan Jones (hamstring), DB Michael Carter II (abdomen) and WR Britain Covey (knee).

Ahead of Sunday’s game, the team elevated RB Elijah Mitchell and S Cole Wisniewski from the practice squad. This was Mitchell’s third and final elevation and the second for Wisniewski. If Mitchell is to play in another game this season, the Eagles would need to sign him to the 53-man roster.

Let’s get to the observations:

* Paying attention to pregame warmups, I noticed that Marcus Epps, not Kenny Moore, aligned opposite Drew Mukuba at safety. While that’s typically indicative of what to expect, Moore was introduced with defensive starters. Sure enough, the Eagles changed things up a bit on the defensive side, reinserting Epps to pair with Mukuba when the defense was in nickel.

Previously, coordinator Vic Fangio had turned to Kenny Moore to fill the void, though Epps and Moore rotated last week against the Washington Commanders. On first watch, I thought Epps generally played well and was active around the line of scrimmage. He probably brings a little more physicality to the position relative to converted nickels Moore and Carter II.

Epps picked up six tackles against the Giants. Later in the game, when Baun exited and the Eagles were down to just Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Smael Mondon Jr. – the latter playing his first defensive snaps of the season – Moore would occasionally work in as an extra defensive back in place of Mondon Jr.

* I thought Joe Milton fared about as well as one could reasonably expect. It wasn’t close to perfect, to be sure, but the third-year quarterback gave the Eagles a better chance than they’d have had with the immobile Tanner McKee at the controls. Sure, there were moments when he appeared indecisive, but it never looked as though the moment was too big for him. He spoke after the game about building chemistry with his pass targets:

“I mean, I feel like I grew a better bond with the whole offense, just being in that huddle, hearing those guys keep cheering me on and the fight that they have and just the communication aspect of it. For my first three – my first time playing with those guys in a real game and that type of setting at a home game. It’s not as loud for us, but at the same time, you’ve got the Giants fans out there chirping and whatever. Those guys were great in the huddle. Makai and Dallas were also great in the huddle, but everybody overall was great in the huddle and just the push and the want to that we wanted in the huddle. It was great.”

* The Giants unveiled a defensive blueprint akin to recent Eagles opponents by sending an abundance of pressure to stress an embattled offensive line. That aggressiveness proved to be too much for the Eagles, as unblocked pressures and communication issues continued to mount. For perspective, Milton, a mobile quarterback, was sacked seven times.

In fairness, not all pressures are a result of leaks along the offensive line. In this case, the Eagles were also starting a quarterback who had been with the team for only three weeks, and the communication between the center and quarterback are essential in ensuring a cleaner operation. Perhaps that will come in time, though it’s been a prevailing theme through nine games and three different quarterbacks.

As for the ground game, the Eagles continued to stall, with Saquon Barkley and Elijah Mitchell running into crowded boxes and unblocked defenders, seemingly fighting for every blade of grass. Barkley averaged 1.7 yards per carry while Mitchell finished with 2.0. During the bye week, it’s incumbent upon the Eagles’ offensive coaches to devise a more creative approach in an attempt to revive the ground game.

Left tackle Jordan Mailata offered perspective with regard to the staggering ground game:

“I think teams are doing a really good job of blitzing us in the run game, creating heavy boxes, which they don’t appear to be heavy, and then on the snap we’re getting movement and we’re getting an extra guy backside, which is an option to cut it back, and you can’t cut it back ’cause there’s a guy unblocked,” he said. “So, we gotta do better with the execution of whatever run is being played and just finish your guy. Just finish your guy across from you.”

* The Eagles’ pass rush finally came alive, feasting on a vulnerable Giants offensive line and taking advantage of a QB in J.J. McCarthy who often held the ball a tick too long. Credit Fangio for stepping outside of his traditional line of thinking and dialing up more pressure, but it was encouraging to see the Eagles’ collection of outside linebackers get home, with Jonathan Greenard and Nolan Smith each picking up a sack. For Greenard, it was his first of the season.

* The interior defensive line often won its respective matchups, stymieing the Giants’ ground game and pushing the pocket. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter each picked up a sack.

* Impactful game from LB Zack Baun, who exited the game early with a back injury and did not return. The veteran defender had an active outing nevertheless, racking up seven tackles while also notching a pair of sacks. Baun, who had been relatively quiet of late, set the tone early and was all over the field. A compelling argument can be made that it was Baun’s best showing since Week 1 against the Commanders. This is worth noting, as the defense had seemingly lacked that tenacity and energy in recent weeks.

* In the waning moments of the second quarter, P Braden Mann booted an 86-yard punt, erasing any potential last-ditch attempt at producing points for the Giants, essentially ending the half. Mann’s name will forever be remembered in team history, as that punt becomes the second longest in Eagles history, behind only QB Randall Cunningham’s 91-yard punt against the Giants in 1989. Mann, as I’ve said for multiple years now, deserves to be heralded as one of the league’s top punters. He’s a weapon.

* Now, for the negatives on special teams. Michael Clay’s special teams unit continues to rack up penalties, some repeated, like CB Kelee Ringo called for an unsportsmanlike conduct for running out of bounds and not reestablishing. Then there was the fourth quarter punt, where Mann was unable to handle the high snap from Rocco Underwood and hastily punted out of bounds in an attempt to salvage the play. In that sequence, WR Darius Cooper was called for an illegal shift, and Underwood for an ineligible downfield kick, which was declined. The unit also wasn’t able to spring KR/RB Jaydon Blue, who averaged just 20.7 yards per return. This isn’t exactly a recent development, but it’s details that most certainly add up.

* For a team that prides itself on its core tenets – tough, detailed, together – the detail part has severely lacked. One example occurred in the game’s waning moments. With 26 seconds to play, the Eagles faced a 2nd-and-10 from their own 36. Milton dumped it off to RB Elijah Mitchell in the right flat, but Mitchell didn’t get out of bounds to preserve clock, forcing Milton to hastily spike the ball with seven seconds remaining. At a point in the game when every second counted, that lapse in situational awareness potentially proved costly.

* In terms of time of possession, the Giants (34:45) held the ball for nearly 10 minutes more than the Eagles (25:15).

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is the Eagles beat reporter for InsideTheBirds.com.