Three critical parts of tonight’s Giants-Eagles game, plus early 2025 stat leaders
Inside: Key matchups in tonight’s Eagles-Giants game, league leaders in interesting stats, plus Dianna Russini joins to share the latest on Cincy’s new QB plans.
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Could the Giants surprise tonight?
It would be a small shock if the 1-4 Giants won tonight’s game against 4-1 Philadelphia, obviously, as they are 7.5-point underdogs.
It would also be a rare occurrence. In their 23 meetings since 2014, the Giants are 4-19 against this NFC East rival, winning just once in the past four years.
Since Tom Coughlin resigned after the 2015 season, the Giants regularly lose to most teams. They sport sub-.500 records against all but five: the Commanders (10-8 since then), Browns (2-1), Bengals (2-1), Colts (2-1) and Texans (2-0). That’s it.
So yes, any win is likely a surprise for Giants fans. To pull it off tonight, New York needs to control three key matchups (8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video):
1. Turnover battle. The Eagles don’t turn the ball over, but the Giants do. Philadelphia has just one giveaway in its first five games (hence the 4-1 record despite a struggling offense), while New York has eight, including five in last Sunday’s loss to the Saints.
If Philly’s luck changes, though, the Giants have a shot. Their last victory against the Eagles, in Week 18 of the 2023 season, was accompanied by four takeaways. The Giants also had five sacks in that victory, which brings me to …
2. Giants pass rush vs. Jalen Hurts. We saw the importance of a strong rush against the Eagles in their Week 5 loss to the Broncos, when Hurts was sacked six times.
An injured Eagles offensive line — without Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson (ankle), whose backup, Brett Toth, allowed a sack and four pressures, along with a penalty in that Broncos loss — must do better than in Hurts’ last matchup against New York.
Last October, he and Kenny Pickett were sacked five times, pressured on 52.2 percent of their dropbacks and held to 10 completions for 70 net passing yards. The Eagles still won that game, because …
3. Saquon Barkley vs. Giants run defense. In that game, Barkley returned to MetLife Stadium with a vengeance, and the Eagles totaled 269 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground (without their star left tackle Jordan Mailata).
Offensive line concerns aside, this could be the ideal get-right game for the run-first Eagles and Barkley (whose knee injury appears minor after he practiced in full yesterday). New York allows running backs to start untouched (eighth-most yards before contact), then run for big gains (third-most runs of 10 or more yards). Barkley has ranked near the bottom in both categories so far this year.
The Giants will be hard-pressed to win this one, especially with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart likely to see plenty of disguised coverages from Vic Fangio’s defense (though Philly’s star defensive tackle, Jalen Carter, was a surprising addition to the injury report and is one to monitor).
Still, I’ll agree with Vic Tafur in his picks against the spread for Week 6. I think the home Giants keep the divisional game closer than we suspect thanks to their run/short-throw game, led by Dart, Cam Skattebo and the returning Tyrone Tracy. My fantasy teams hope Barkley proves me wrong.
What Dianna’s Hearing: Flacco to start
The Bengals had to make a move. Their offensive stars are well-compensated, they have a prime-time spotlight looming and the results just weren’t there with backup Jake Browning.
I’m told Cincinnati discussed a bevy of options internally, but ultimately, the only substantial trade discussions were with rival Cleveland for the 40-year-old Joe Flacco.
The Bengals never called the Giants regarding Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston. Does that close the door on a potential Wilson exit from New York? The Giants are expecting to receive interest ahead of the trade deadline, but it will depend on a given team’s situation.
Meanwhile, the Bengals are pinning their dwindling playoff hopes on the veteran Flacco, who will start against the Packers for the second time in four weeks Sunday in Green Bay. Will it work? We’ll see.
Back to you, Jacob.
Browns and Jaguars swap CBs
In 2021, the Browns chose cornerback Greg Newsome II with the 26th pick. Seven slots later, cornerback Tyson Campbell was drafted by the Jaguars.
It’s now 2025, and fans of both teams seem relieved that the cornerbacks were swapped. Yesterday, the Jaguars sent Campbell and a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Browns for Newsome and a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Notably, Newsome is a free agent this offseason, while the Browns keep Campbell at least until 2026, after which the guarantees on his four-year, $76.5 million extension run out (the Jags already paid much of this). Full takeaways here.
League leaders in key stats
As I’ve said before, if football is America’s game, then following football stats — from prop bets to fantasy football — is America’s game’s game. Let’s quickly review the leaders in major categories:
Two players are on pace to top some impressive records:
Puka Nacua: on pace for 1,999 receiving yards and 177 receptions. Both would set all-time records, narrowly topping Calvin Johnson’s 1,964-yard season in 16 games (with Stafford at quarterback, of course) and obliterating Michael Thomas’ receptions record (149). Truly a remarkable start for the fifth-round pick.
Nick Bonitto: on pace for 23.5 sacks. After he had 13.5 sacks last season, the Broncos rewarded their 25-year-old edge rusher with a four-year, $106 million extension. The 64th pick out of Oklahoma in 2022 has been even better since, on pace to break the record of 22.5, shared by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan.
No surprise for any fan of their respective teams. As for the teams …
There’s no doubt that it’s difficult to run on the Browns, as Derrick Henry (2.1 yards per carry), Chase Brown (2.0), Josh Jacobs (1.9) and David Montgomery (1.3) learned. But I’ve got one question:
- Do the Falcons field one of the best defenses in football? Definitely not. Sure, they have allowed the fewest passing and total yards, but outside of J.J. McCarthy’s disastrous second start, the Falcons are also giving up 26.7 points per game despite facing Marcus Mariota and Bryce Young in two of their other three games.
And kudos to Kyle Shanahan, whose gritty 49ers lead the NFL in passing yards and win games despite losing their $265 million quarterback. We Bengals fans can only dream.
Extra Points
🥒 Get It Fixed. Cramping on runs? The basketball court? There’s a salty solution for it, utilized by the 49ers.
🔥 Getting Hot. Mike Jones shares his list of coaches on the hot seat, explaining why things are getting uncomfortable for Jonathan Gannon in Arizona, Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and even John Harbaugh in Baltimore.
📺 Get Weird. In this week’s NFL trends column, Saad Yousuf shares the five weirdest touchdowns so far during a season already abounding with them.
🎙 Get Draft Ready. One of my favorite additions to “The Athletic Football Show” is Building the Beast, arguably the best NFL Draft show. Dane Brugler joins Dave Helman to share his top three college prospects at each position. Good news for South Carolina’s LaNoris Sellers: “Probably the strongest quarterback I’ve ever evaluated,” explained Dane.
🎞 Getting Better? Scouting reports on rookie quarterbacks Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart and Dillon Gabriel.
▶️ Yesterday’s most-clicked: Michael Silver’s fun story on the troubles of NFL travel in Europe.
Also, what can’t Vita Vea do? Here’s the 6-foot-4, 347-pound defensive tackle (and former high school running back) acting like a DB, both before and after the ball arrives:
Straps!!! Also, I found the answer:
The Vita Vea jersey exchange.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/5nTOOUfFXv
— dpool (@AnonymousSauces) October 15, 2021
The embed codes for Scoop and TAFS podcast always in here if you’re looking for them, or you can find them on YT itself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kkwihhg65LDotjfScsh9JQA2kMXVMW2IwcJDPQLtLMA/edit?gid=1045246161#gid=1045246161
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