Surging Birds Vs. Desperate Giants

The Eagles look to continue their hot stretch as they travel Sunday to East Rutherford, N.J., to take on the Giants at MetLife Stadium.

On the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discussed the divisional matchup and go over the latest injury and transaction news.

DeVonta Smith will get his first taste of the Eagles-Giants rivalry

Davion Taylor

Geoff Mosher: “Linebacker Davion Taylor, who had been improving, underwent a [knee] surgery. Now, the interesting thing is I think Nick Sirianni said that he can still return late this year, which, I’m suggesting, means that it’s not a full tear. Something what they call minor surgery.”

Adam Caplan: “Sirianni said he had a sprained knee. Knee sprains don’t get surgery unless there’s cartilage or there’s something wrong around the knee. So who knows? The earliest he could return will be Week 16 because you have to miss games, not weeks. It’s three games. So they have the bye, Week 14, the earliest he could play would be Week 16 If he’s healthy enough to. So we’re gonna see Alex Singleton start for him.”

DeVonta Smith

Mosher: “I wouldn’t be shocked if [the Giants] were playing almost like cloud coverage, like deep and keeping everything in front and try to stop the run and keep anything from Devonta Smith from hurting you deep. Really, Devonta has been their only target beyond 20 yards. So there’s that one-dimensionality of the Eagles offense that we talk about that I think that at some point — there’s going to be a team that schemes that away from them a little bit, and we’ll see if it’s the Giants.

Caplan: “Well, they don’t take shot plays with Smith. It’s intermediate and run-after-the-catch stuff. You saw the crosser last week, which is beautifully thrown to Smith.”

Jalen Hurts

Caplan: “I gotta give [Jalen] Hurts credit for execution. His running was dazzling. I never saw him as that great of an athlete. I wouldn’t call him super explosive but he’s shifty as hell and he’s so decisive when he runs. That third touchdown run, that juke move it was like you were playing Madden, it was just incredible. It surprised me, man. It was cool to see and it was interesting because they’re not throwing it [very much]. His past attempts are so far down, he was averaging 35 attempts through six weeks. Now he’s averaging in the low 20s and it’s working.”

Saquon Barkley

Mosher: “As you mentioned, what the Eagles give up from a pass-catching standpoint to running backs, I would worry about Saquon Barkley, as long as he’s healthy. I don’t know how much he’s inhibited by the ankle, but if he’s out there, I’m gonna assume he’s good enough to play and play effectively and I would worry about how they use him. It wouldn’t surprise me if on some rundowns, they went two tight ends and tried to ram it up the middle with them and then spread it out and try to throw it to him on pass downs. So we shall see, but I would worry just based on the Eagles’ history on what they’ve given up to inside guys – whether it’s running backs, tight ends, slot receivers – that a righted Giants offense could finally get the most out of Saquon Barkley, that’s what I would expect.”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

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