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Studs and duds from New York Giants’ Week 7 loss to Philadelphia Eagles

The New York Giants were absolutely humiliated on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Not only did Philadelphia Eagles fans dominate a large majority of the crowd, but the Eagles completely dominated the Giants on the field.

Running back Saquon Barkley exacted his revenge on general manager Joe Schoen and the Giants with a near-career-best game that he only failed to reach because the Eagles pulled their starters.

The Giants also began to quit late in the second quarter when head coach Brian Daboll decided to forego a shot at the end zone and instead went conservative with a field goal. Embarrassingly, that would end up being their only points of the game.

Here’s a quick look at the studs and duds (and studly duds) from Sunday’s loss:

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

There wasn’t much to be excited about on Sunday but nose tackle Dexter Lawrence once again stated his case for the Defensive Player of the Year Award. We have run out of ways to phrase and explain his dominance other than to say he’s made an impact similar to Lawrence Taylor during his prime, albeit at an entirely different position. Sexy Dexy finished the game with five tackles (two for a loss), two QB hits, and 2.0 sacks. He now has a career-high 9.0 sacks and leads the NFL.

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The argument in favor of Daboll has always been that his team doesn’t quit. On Sunday, for the first time during his tenure, that was not the case. There were players visibly quitting on the field, which we’ll touch on shortly, while Daboll himself waived the white flag with nearly a full quarter remaining. That doesn’t even take into account his scared play-calling to end the second quarter. From an optics perspective, this is about as bad as it’s been for Dabes.

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Brian Burns entered the game with a groin injury and that very clearly impacted him throughout Sunday’s contest. He did his best to fight through the pain and to his credit, had a fairly solid outing. He finished the day with four tackles (three solo, one for a loss), two QB hits, and one sack. He was also better against the run than most of his teammates not named Lawrence.

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There’s no way to single a player or two out. The entire line played their worst game of the season in Andrew Thomas’ absence and that can not be overstated. It began with Joshua Ezeudu and ended with the entire line being dominated, especially on the right side with Greg Van Roten and Jermaine Eluemunor. It’s always difficult to grade an offensive line in real time which speaks to how poorly this unit played on Sunday because it was clear to even an untrained eye that they were being dominated.

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It may have gotten lost in an embarrassing team-wide performance, but rookie cornerback Andru Phillips made several impressive plays on Sunday afternoon that potentially saved points by stopping plays and drives short. He recorded two key tackles for a loss and made a third tackle alone in the open field.

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Earlier this season, defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson lit into cornerback Deonte Banks for a lack of effort. On Sunday, Henderson played that back in the fourth quarter as Banks appeared to flat-out quit on a Jalen Hurts scramble. There were two other plays on the same drive where he made absolutely no effort. Some players may have performed worse than Banks on Sunday but none of them quit. He should have been benched.

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Linebacker Azeez Ojulari is a talented and capable pure pass rusher but that’s about where his value begins and ends. For the second week in a row, he was impactful in Kayvon Thibodeaux’s absence but that was a double-edged sword. While he registered a tackle for a loss, a QB hit, and another sack, his play against the run was as poor as his pass rush was good. Most notable, he was among those who failed to set the edge on Barkley’s 55-yard run.