Philadelphia Eagles: Is this a final nail in New York’s coffin?

The Giants failed to exploit a depleted Philadelphia Eagles in the second half. ‘The Birds’ found a way to win, and the G-Men have no answers for it.

When the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants headed to the locker room following two quarters at Lincoln Financial Field, no one was prepared for what we saw in the second half. Honestly, it was a tale of two halves as a Giants team that put up 19 first-half points was held to only three in the final two frames.

If you’re an Eagles fan, you have no complaints whatsoever, but even though we’d all be breaking the 24-hour rule by asking this question, it’s still worth asking the question. How did this happen?

Truthfully, it’s hard to formulate an informative and poignant response. On Monday, New York’s media caught up with that Giants wide receiver. You know the one, the guy that gets paid like a quarterback but seems to take random opportunities to make comments like he doesn’t know if he’s happy and things of that nature.

This week, Odell Beckham Jr. decided to discuss play calling and why the Giants weren’t more aggressive with a second-half lead. Take a look:

"Honestly, that is a question for Coach. That is not really my kind of question. I don’t call the plays. I just do what I’m told to do and go out there and execute. Whenever I get an opportunity to do something, I try to make the most of it. If I don’t have that many opportunities all I can do is do what I can when I do have an opportunity. That is more a question for Coach."

Moments after stating that this was a question that was better suited for the Giants’ coaching staff, Beckham changed his mind and decided to answer the question anyway. Surprising right?

"Coming in, knowing that they’ve struggled in the secondary, personally, I would’ve loved to attack them, but it wasn’t in our game plan."

Well, you knew somebody was going to ask Giants head coach Pat Shurmur for a response, and that came quickly. Prior to meeting with the New York media on Monday, Shurmur stated ‘It doesn’t make sense to throw it every down when you’ve got a running back like Saquon (Barkley).

Now, that would have made perfect sense had the Giants decided to run the ball with their talented rookie to salt the game away, but they didn’t. Barkley had only four carries in the second half, and a Giants team that gained 346 yards of offense in the first half (Barkley was responsible for 159 yards of that) couldn’t get anything going in the final two frames.

On Monday, Shurmur responded to Beckham. Take a look:

"We ran the ball 18 times, we threw it 37. That is twice as many throws as there were runs. We had seven explosive gains in the passing game. The only team that we played that we had more was Carolina. We had eight. There were many times where we tried to throw to him. The long throw down the right sideline that we had to [tight end] Rhett [Ellison] was designed to go to Odell. They cushioned on him. We threw it to Rhett."

Let’s make long stories short. The Giants made bad decisions down the stretch. They have a very rich wide receiver who’s very emotional and a bit of a diva, and now that they’ve created a monster. Shurmur, their head coach, was very careful not to offend Beckham with his comments (that seems to be the Giants way now).

"That was one man’s opinion after an emotional loss, but what happens is you get an opportunity to get a good night sleep, you watch the tape, maybe change his opinion."

It appears that no one will be mistaking the Giants locker room for the Garden of Eden anytime soon.