Dallas Goedert’s punch sets the tone in Eagles’ knockout of Giants, and other observations

Before the one-handed catch for his first touchdown, and the 10-yard rumble that nearly became his second, Dallas Goedert delivered the knockout blow. It was instinctual. It was violent. It was perfectly legal. And by the end of a 38-7 exhibition of an Eagles playoff win over a laughably overmatched Giants team, it could easily have been forgotten.

We should refresh our memories, then. On a night when the Eagles landed every figurative punch they threw, it was a literal one that set the tone. On the third snap of the game, Goedert gathered in a pass from Jalen Hurts near the Giants’ 30-yard line, cradled the ball in his left hand, and then used his right to deliver a wild stiff-arm of a haymaker to the ear hole of Adoree’ Jackson. The blow knocked the stunned Giants cornerback out of balance and backward a couple of feet, clearing the way for Goedert to gain a few extra yards. By the time a second defender arrived to help wrangle him down, a message had been delivered. This wasn’t going to be a fight. It was going to be a mugging.

“I face up against a DB, I’m trying to stiff arm him every time,” Goedert said later. “They’re too small, they can’t reach - I landed one that I’d been waiting to land for awhile.”

Games like this can make it difficult to perform any sort of thoughtful analysis. The Eagles were the better team, in every facet of the game, by several orders of magnitude. We’d already seen that once, and anybody who thought this time would be different was probably talking themselves into it. The big story on Saturday night had nothing to do with Xs and Os or Jimmys and Joes. Rather, it was the statement that the Eagles made.

We belong here. You don’t. Now, get out of our way.

This is the kind of message that championship teams find a way to deliver on this kind of platform. It is one thing to be the better team. It is another thing to act like it.

That, right there, is what the Eagles did. You saw it throughout their four quarters of dominance up and down the field. Forget about the big plays: the 40-yard bomb from Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith on the second play of the game, the back-to-back sacks by Haason Reddick on third and fourth down, the safety blitz through the B-Gap that forced a Daniel Jones interception by James Bradberry. Where the Eagles established their identity was in the moments in between.

You saw when Bradberry stopped Isaiah Hodgins dead in his tracks, delivering a hit that forced a bobble that forced him back behind the sticks on third down.You saw it when Marcus Epps chased down Saquon Barkley from behind with the Eagles up 28-0, his effort preventing a 39-yard run from becoming an 80-yard touchdown. You saw it each time Hurts carried the ball by design, including one run that he finished by lowering that much-talked-about shoulder.

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In short, the Eagles looked and played like the kind of team that does not plan on losing now, next week, or ever.

A few other thoughts …

1) Give Jonathan Gannon credit. The Eagles’ defensive coordinator spent much of last season as a convenient scapegoat for a defense that simply did not have the personnel to compete at a championship level. Against the Giants, he showed exactly why his bosses never lost confidence. Gannon mostly relied on his players to be the players that they are. His defensive line dominated the day. On Barkley’s first rushing attempt, the Eagles had defensive tackles Fletcher Cox, Linval Joseph, and Javon Hargrave all in the game. All you saw was a wall of green going nowhere, and a cloud of white evaporating around it, and Barkley jogging in place.

2) Reddick’s performance was further testament to the credit that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman deserves for his personnel maneuvering. The offseason signing was a force throughout the game, never more than on the Giants’ first drive. On third-and-3 from the Eagles’ 35-yard line, Reddick beat his man off the edge and forced Jones to step up in the pocket, where he tripped over a lineman’s feet and went down for a sack. On the next play, he used a bull rush to get to Jones and pull him down, forcing a turnover on downs and giving the offense the ball near midfield.

3) Goedert remains one of the more underrated players in the NFL. And you can sort of understand that when you look at his final stat line: five catches, 58 yards, a touchdown. Those aren’t the sort of numbers that will earn you mentions alongside guys like Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Darren Waller, and George Kittle. But he made his physical presence felt on every snap, and had a game that easily could have seen him double his statistical production if the situation had called for it.

4) Credit Nick Sirianni for the identity that he has built with this team, both in the locker room and with his playbook. Four players gained at least 30 yards rushing, including 112 by Kenneth Gainwell and 90 by Miles Sanders. Collectively, the Eagles rushed for 268 yards and 17 first downs on 44 carries. They did what good teams do: what they do.