A season that started with high expectations, visions of an explosive offense and a dominant defense and hopes of another trip to the playoffs has ended for the New York Giants.
The Giants (5-10) were eliminated from the postseason with their 33-25 loss at Philadelphia.
New York’s 2-8 start certainly didn’t help, even though undrafted free agent quarterback Tommy DeVito gave to the team a flicker of hope by leading it on a late three-game winning streak. The team’s poor play early in the season and injuries to Saquon Barkley, and Andrew Thomas combined to make Brian Daboll’s second season not what many expected after he took the team to the playoffs in 2022.
“Certainly, you’re disappointed,” Daboll said Tuesday. “You put everything you have into it each year to get an opportunity to compete in the postseason, but our focus and my focus right now is on to the next week and to do everything we can do to go out there and play a good game against the Rams.”
Despite having slim playoff hopes after the bad start, credit the Giants for competing hard most of the season, even Monday when they rallied from a 20-3 halftime deficit. If they do that the final two weeks, they may play a spoiler role.
The Eagles totaled 465 yards of offense and a lot of that had to do with bad tackling. Inside linebacker Micah McFadden missed a couple of tackles, and running back D’Andre Swift’s 92 yards rushing was aided by defenders not bringing him down on first contact.
Tyrod Taylor. Trailing 20-3 at the half, Daboll turned to the veteran backup quarterback for a spark and he delivered. The 34-year-old was 7 of 16 passing for 133 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton. Taylor was intercepted once. He also ran twice for 21 yards, helping New York convert 3 of 6 third downs in the half.
