Observations: Giants 15, Eagles 7

Here’s what we saw during today’s Eagles-Giants game.

OFFENSE

* The Eagles’ offense is in a rut, having scored a total of three points in the last two games. They had six punts and three turnovers today against a Giants team that came in with a 1-6 record.

* Michael Vick lasted four possessions, but clearly wasn’t close to 100 percent and was pulled in favor of Matt Barkley late in the second quarter. Vick went 6-for-9 for 31 yards. He was intercepted on the Eagles’ first possession, looking for Brent Celek. And on the next possession, Vick had James Casey in the flat, but held on to the ball and fumbled.

* Matt Barkley came into the game on the Eagles’ final possession of the half. He drove them down the field, completing six of seven passes for 55 yards, but fumbled in the red zone. The Eagles had a 1st-and-goal from the 2 and called a pass play. Barkley rolled to his left, and instead of throwing the ball away, was stripped and turned it over. It was his fourth turnover in four possessions as the Eagles’ quarterback. Overall, Barkley was 17-for-26 for 158 yards and an interception.

* Chip Kelly chose not to hand the ball to McCoy on that 1st-and-goal play from the 2. McCoy had just 7 yards on six carries in the first half. The Eagles could have potentially gone into halftime down, 12-7. Instead, it was 12-0. McCoy had some better luck in the second half and finished with 48 yards on 15 carries.

* DeSean Jackson had eight catches on 11 targets for 63 yards, but couldn’t get anything going downfield. On a third down in the second half, he ran a crossing pattern, made the catch, but lost yardage after the ball was in his hands, trying to avoid defenders. The Eagles were forced to punt.

* Barkley fumbled his first snap from Jason Kelce, but picked it up and found Celek for 9 yards. Barkley later fumbled a snap on fourth down and threw over Jason Avant’s head.

* Did you notice Celek asking out because of an injury on the Eagles’ fourth possession? Instead of taking him out or calling timeout, the Eagles kept Celek in as McCoy was dropped for a 3-yard loss.

* Jackson was back to return a punt in the first half, and the Giants booted it out of bounds, giving the Eagles possession at their own 42.

* For some reason, the Eagles were still running the zone read (or what looked like the zone read) with Barkley in the game.

* On a fourth down in the fourth quarter, Barkley hit Avant for a first, but he was whistled for offensive pass interference.

* The Eagles’ only points came in the fourth quarter. The Giants snapped the ball over the punter’s head, and Najee Goode recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

* There were several questionable in-game decisions by Kelly, but the real head-scratcher was his decision to go with an onside kick with 4:11 left. The Eagles had a timeout and were down by 8 points. Seemed like kicking it away would have been the move there.

DEFENSE

* The Eagles’ defense held up well for the most part, limiting the Giants to 15 points and only three in the second half. In the first half, Billy Davis’ crew got scored on four times, but kept the Giants out of the end zone. Eli Manning finished 25-for-39 for 246 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.

* Victor Cruz had seven catches for 86 yards. Hakeem Nicks had seven for 51. The Eagles allowed three pass plays of 20+ yards in the first half.

* It seemed like Earl Wolff had his share of issues in coverage in the first half.

* Brandon Boykin came on a third-down blitz, hit Manning and forced a field-goal try in the second. On the previous series, Boykin gave up a 26-yard completion to Cruz.

* Fletcher Cox got good pressure on Manning on a third-down play in the red zone in the second. Manning ended up throwing incomplete on the play.

* Cary Williams looked like he got poked in the eye in the second. He was on the field for awhile, but returned on the next possession. Williams played well in the first half. On one drive, he stopped a screen for no gain and then had good coverage on Nicks in the end zone, forcing a field-goal try.

* Cedric Thornton and Mychal Kendricks were active against the run. Thornton had six tackles. Kendricks had 11 tackles (10 solo, one for loss).

* Connor Barwin had a nice series in the fourth, forcing Manning into an intentional grounding on one play and batting a ball at the line of scrimmage on the next.

* Nate Allen seemed to play well. He had a nice tackle on Nicks in the open field on third down in the second half to force a punt.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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