Winners and losers: 6 takeaways from Eagles get-right win in Week 7

The Philadelphia Eagles absolutely destroyed the New York Giants for a full 60 minutes in Week 7. After winning 28-3, their record improves to 4-2 and the Giants drop to 1-5. 

It’s looking more and more like the Eagles' only path to the playoffs is by winning the division, and a wire-to-wire show of supremacy in their NFC East game of the season was a great way to get the season back on track.

The Eagles' win over the Giants is a cause for celebration.

The Eagles are on a winning streak. It’s easy to say that a couple of wins over bad teams aren’t worth much, but the other option is that they lose to those bad teams. So this is a good thing and you shouldn’t let anyone try to make you feel bad.

The Week 7 win was special, and it was due to a bunch of stand-out performances by a bunch of players, coaches, and things. It’s time to give them their acknowledgment.

Revenge Game Loser: Shane Bowen

On April 28, 2022, the Tennessee Titans traded A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles. On December 4, 2022, the Eagles played the Titans and A.J. went off to the tune of eight catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns. The Titans’ defensive coordinator was Shane Bowen.

The Giants decided not to re-sign Saquon Barkley and on March 13, 2024, the Eagles signed him instead. This week Saquon rushed for 176 yards and a touchdown. The Giants’ defensive coordinator: Shane Bowen.

What did Shane Bowen do to deserve this fate? How does he keep finding himself in the hell that is defending a player who is demanding vengeance?  Whatever the reason, you have to hope he keeps doing it because it’s awesome to see our guys absolutely ruin his day.

For what it’s worth, the Titan’s general manager Jon Robinson got fired two days after the A.J. revenge game. Keep an eye out for news about the Giants’ general manager Joe Schoen getting fired this week. 

It’s going to stink when that happens because you want all of your division rivals to have as bad of general managers as possible, but Schoen’s terrible decision-making just embarrassed his franchise in a pretty wild way… And the Giants are used to getting embarrassed, so this is kind of saying a lot. 

Back-to-back winner: Eagles' defense

The Eagles' defense has strung together a pair of good games. Between Weeks 6 and 7, they’ve allowed 12 points (none of which were touchdowns) and they’ve had 13 sacks. 

You can say, ‘Who cares? Those were bad offenses,’ but that’s lame. It’s good when a defense beats the brakes off of bad offenses and doesn’t allow them into the endzone. That’s what good teams do.

The defense's performance against the Giants was especially remarkable. They only allowed 119 total yards, 76 of which were on the ground. That means they held the Giants to 43 passing yards. That's impressive when we’re talking about the NFL in 2024.

The Georgia Dawgs ate too. Nakobe Dean had 11 tackles, two sacks, and two tackles for a loss. Jalen Carter had four tackles, two sacks, and two tackles for a loss. Nolan Smith had two tackles, one sack, and two tackles for a loss. It was awesome to see these guys come alive.

Quinyon Mitchell started his rivalry with Malik Nabers on the right foot. Nabers was held to just 41 yards all game, and Quinyon only allowed two catches to him for 15 yards off of four targets. It was an amazing performance. Every single week, Q shows that he was a steal when the Eagles drafted him at 22 overall in the draft. 

At some point, he’ll finally get an interception. It feels like it’s a statistical anomaly that a ball can hit him in his hands this many times without him actually coming down with it. This is his third almost-interception this season through six games.

Bryce Huff also had a good game. He had two tackles, one sack, one tackle for a loss, and two QB hits. On one play, he forced Daniel Jones to step up in the pocket and right into Nakobe Dean for a sack. He looks like he’s getting more comfortable with the defense and he’s getting back on the right side of things. This game was a confirmation that the ‘Bryce Huff might actually be worth the money’ watch is officially on.

Almost Unanimous Winner: Saquon Barkley

The only reason Saquon is an ‘Almost Unanimous Winner’ is because he didn’t break his single-game rushing record of 189 yards. He came out of the game when he was at 176 rushing yards on 17 carries. The goal was in sight, but the Giants took it away from him because they are such a bad team. It was one last middle finger to Barkley.

After the Eagles scored at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Giants decided to wave the white flag and pull their starters. That unfortunately forced the Eagles’ hand and made them pull their starters as well.

That being said, Saquon was AWESOME. He had 57 more yards than the entire Giants offense had throughout the entire game. His 176 yards ended up being the most rushing yards he’s ever had in that stadium, and he’s played almost 40 games there, which is very funny in a sad way.

He was pounding defenders into the ground from the get-go, and he kept it going for the next 45 minutes. He played like a man possessed, and to be fair, he might’ve been. When you see an ex who dumped you, you have to give a little bit of extra ‘stank’ in everything you do. Saquon drove by his ex in a Lamborghini while smoking a cigar that he lit with hundred-dollar bills.

At the beginning of the game, Saquon was getting booed by the Giants’ fans at Metlife, but by the end of the game, they were cheering for him when he came back onto the field for a Brotherly Shove. So not only did he break the Giants, but he also broke the Giants’ fans. Saquon is utterly dominant and he transcends fandom. What a time to be alive.

Wally Pipp Winner? (or loser, depending on how you look at it): Britain Covey

Britain Covey is currently on IR with a shoulder injury. Because of that, Cooper DeJean is taking over as the Eagles’ punt returner, and buddy… he’s really good at it. Against the Giants, he returned three punts including one for 28 yards which set up the Eagles’ second touchdown drive.

Covey was good at getting yardage on punt returns, but DeJean simply looks better when he does it. When Covey gets touched while returning, it looks like he is getting shot by a howitzer at point-blank range. That’s not the case with DeJean.

It has everything to do with each player’s size. Covey is five feet and eight inches tall and weighs 175 pounds, while DeJean is six feet tall and 200 pounds. DeJean not only has the same shiftiness as Covey, but he can also blast through people rather than have people blast through him.

When Britain comes off the IR, he might have some trouble finding a way back onto the 53-man roster. Sure, he has some chops as a wide receiver, but he makes his bread as the punt returner. 

It stinks because over the past three years, Covey has become a mainstay on special teams, and it always feels like he is one broken tackle away from returning a punt for a touchdown. It's tough to see a guy’s value diminish when he’s out with an injury, and he seems likable but that’s where we are.

Loser: The 365-day calendar

The last time the Eagles had won by more than eight points was against the Miami Dolphins in Week 7 of the 2023 season. That game was on October 22, 2023, and they won by 14 points. The Eagles just beat the Giants by 25 points on October 20, 2024. That’s 364 days (because of the leap year) in between the two. The Eagles JUST escaped a full calendar year without having a comfortable win. 

In those 364 days, the Eagles had eight wins. In those wins, they won by 7, 5, 4, 3, 8, 5, 3, and 4 points. That’s an average margin of 4.9 points, and we felt every single one of those close games. 

It’s just really nice when you can have a stress-free game and it’s even nicer when it comes against a divisional little brother.

Loser: Metlife’s artificial turf

In Week 6, the Lincoln Financial Field’s turf monster ate when Dallas Goedert and Jordan Mailata both left the game with hamstring injuries. It was tough to come to terms with two of the Eagles offensive starters being unavailable for the foreseeable future, and injury-induced fear was only heightened when you realized the next week would be played on the cursed artificial turf of  Metlife Stadium.

The last time the Eagles stepped foot on that turf was in Week 18 of 2023 and A.J. Brown left the game with a knee injury and Sydney Brown tore his ACL. Injuries like that are synonymous with a game at the crown jewel of East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Luckily, the Eagles made it out of Metlife with only one injured player: Mekhi Becton who suffered a concussion at some point in the first half. It stinks that he got hurt and it really stinks that it’s a brain thing, but at least it’s not one of the same kind of leg injuries he’s had that’s derailed all of his other seasons.

It’s nice that we got the Metlife game out of the way early in the season, that way there’s impending dread of an injury that lingers into January. That field is a metaphorical (and possibly literal) minefield of despair.