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Trash – 23 Immediate Observations from Whatever the Final Score of this Ass Kicking Ends Up Being
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That sucked almost as much as the Phillies loss. The Eagles got worked by a rookie QB and RB on a short week. The defense was trash, the offense was trash, and special teams was trash.
Other than that, it was a great performance!
Here are some observations. I’m just gonna publish with 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter, because whatever.
1) Jalen Carter was held out because of a heel injury. That is what it is, but here’s the infuriating part:
Bad stadium. If your surface factors into whether or not iffy players are going to give it a go, then you should install a new surface.
2) Saquon Barkley’s over/under for rushing yards was 84.5. He got more than a third of the way to that total on the game’s first two plays, then only ran for about 20 more yards before garbage time.
3) Can’t get used to Kirk Herbstreit calling NFL games. It’s not that he does a bad job, it’s that he’s been so synonymous with the college game over the years that it feels strange to hear him do anything else.
4) Al Michaels had a great bit of juice to start this game. Usually he’s just going through the motions, but in this case it sounded like he actually wanted to be there, which was a nice change of pace.
5) Gross opening series for the defense. Which was uglier – Kelee Ringo getting boxed out by Lil’Jordan Humphrey on 3rd and long, or Zack Baun getting worked by Jaxson Dart in the open field?
6) Second Eagles drive, Jordan Mailata abused on 2nd and 3rd down by Brian Burns. Not an easy assignment, but he was worked twice, leading to a punt.
7) Inexcusable is Ringo failing to touch Wan’Dale Robinson on the ground after that reception. It’s not the college game anymore, he can get up and run.
8) Andrew Mukuba – missed tackle leading to a Giants touchdown. Rookie stuff to work on.
Giants scored on this play pic.twitter.com/IdHV4M6RIY
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) October 10, 2025
9) The Birds scored on the underhand toss again, that empty set look with Dallas Goedert running behind trips. Not as clean as the first time they ran it a few weeks ago, but it sure seemed like the Giants didn’t recognize it even though it would have shown up on the film. Herbstreit made it seem like he hadn’t seen it either.
10) Baun made up for the earlier cooking with a really nice third-down tackle to force a punt going into the 2nd quarter. Nice job there.
11) Four tush pushes in a row for a touchdown. Fuckin’ awesome! Shove it down their throats! If everybody could do it, everybody would do it.
(The Eagles false started on the 2nd one, but the refs didn’t throw the flag. So either they call the penalty or we rerack and run it again)
12) Adoree Jackson replaced Ringo for the 3rd Giants series. However, Quinyon Mitchell left with a hamstring injury, which brought Ringo right back in the game.
13) Dart’s scrambling is gonna be annoying for many years to come.
14) Tank Bigsby hasn’t done a single thing since the trade. Muffed kick followed by a visible “what the fuck?” from Nick Sirianni.
15) Bail out from the Giants with that timeout 15 seconds before halftime. No way the Eagles were gonna get that play off. Ultimately it didn’t matter because they didn’t do anything with the 15 seconds anyway. Not the greatest sequence for either coaching staff there.
16) Oof. That 3rd and 6 bomb for DeVonta Smith. Hurts had him.
17) If you think about it, it’s bullshit that a defender has to hold up and wait to see if a QB is going out of bounds, only for the QB to turn inside and put his shoulder down. Dart was able to move the sticks on this exact type of sequence when Jihaad Campbell was trying to avoid a penalty.
He was also leading with the helmet:
18) The Giants were 9 for 11 on 3rd down before Dart went out and Russell Wilson came in to throw a worm burner into the ground. Or was it tipped? No clue, but whatever it was, it was ugly.
19) Hideous possession after the hold. Two runs that went nowhere, followed by a check down. On the 2nd down, Lane Johnson turned in one of the worst run blocking snaps you’ll ever see from him. The entire offensive line struggled with a good Giants D line, and it was highlighted there.
20) A.J. Brown slant? Nowhere to be found. RPO? Read and pull targeting Goedert? It seemed like a lot of their high-percentage, bread-and-butter stuff just wasn’t called.
21) Jalen’s first interception of the season was a hideous one. Stared down Jahan Dotson and threw it right to Cor’Dale Flott.
22) Were the Giants trying to get Dart killed? Multiple QB runs after he came out of the blue medical tent.
23) Let’s all take Friday off!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com