As the week begins, they are completely underwhelmed, and frankly, it feels low. The Giants are 1-3-1 in their last five games and the bullpen is heading south. The Eagles are 3-0 after their first loss in the last three weeks and have scored 75 points in the last two weeks.
From 30,000 feet it looks bad. It looks really bad.
But the game, The Post has learned, is not played at 30,000 feet. It will be played inside MetLife Stadium, with a full house. Early forecasts call for a high of 35 degrees around 1 a.m. Sunday, with no rain, but enough bite in the air to make Giants-Eagles feel good.
“Philadelphia,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said Monday afternoon, “[is] a team that runs through almost everyone.”
They have it. The Eagles are currently 11-1 in the NFL, they have great players all over the field, both sides of the ball and they have a quarterback in Jalen Hurts. Along with the usual surnames of Mahomes and Allen. The Bills and Chiefs remain the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl, but keep your money away from the Eagles at your own peril.
They were very good.
They are there is it’s good.
But it’s Giants-Eagles. It’s New York-Philly. This is a Giants team that has demanded to be taken seriously through 12 games and 13 weeks, even as they watched their arch-rivals take the NFC by storm 90 minutes south. All week, the Giants will show the Eagles the respect they deserve because that’s how they do business.
All week we’ll be reminded how good the Eagles are. Because they are.
But inside MetLife Sunday, it’s cold and loud. The Giants know the playoffs are still within their grasp, and more: right now, their first-round game is against the 49ers, who are as good as anyone, but in the near future, quarterback Brock Purdy is supported. Mr. is not involved in this year’s project.
“Everything we wanted to achieve,” midfielder Daniel Jones said Sunday after a 20-20 draw with the Chiefs, “is still there for us.”
It starts on Sunday. It starts with the Eagles, which is as good a place as any to start, because the appearance of that team at MetLife Field makes Giants fans’ stomachs churn. You can find different Giants fans giving different reasons why Washington or Dallas are their least hated team, and those are fair arguments.
But the Eagles are Chuck Bednarik, gleefully punching over a fainting Frank Gifford at the old Yankee Stadium. The Eagles are Herman Edwards, they’re coming off an improbable loss, and they’re running into the end zone at old Giants Stadium. Eagles – DeSean Jackson broke the 2010 Giants’ 65-yard touchdown run at the new MetLife Stadium.
The Eagles are all of those things. Most recently, they were 8-for-8 against the Giants in years when the Giants had to go from glory to trash. The Giants have won two of their last three. And if the NFC is to get through the Eagles, the Giants will have to figure them out at some point.
Why is this not the point?
“I think so [Eagles GM] Howie [Roseman] It’s done a great job of putting some talent on this team,” Daboll said. “Jalen is playing great. These receivers, they’re special, the O-line, the defensive line, the corners. They’ve got stars. there are actors.”
But you know where Daboll’s mind goes. He said he’s been dividing the season into quadrants all year: the Giants are 3-1 in the first four, 3-1 in the second four and 1-2-1 in the last four. Sunday begins the last quadrant (plus one) of the year. There’s no better time than now to see what you’d look like against the damn Iggles.
“This is the best team in the NFL right now,” Daboll said.
This. No argument here, no argument anywhere. Still, it’s Sunday, December, at the old Meadowlands, two old foes bent on bloodying each other in the high 30s and cold. Yes. At 30,000 feet, touch diffusion is felt. On the ground? Let’s wait. Let’s watch. Let’s see.