The Eagles Tank The Game
Hoo boy! Alright, there was no way we were going to leave this disaster unaddressed. Everyone’s got thoughts on this nonsense so here’s my take on the drama.
Am I mad? I was at the time, but not like “furious kick this guy out of the league” mad. I was mad because the game was very much winnable for the Eagles when Pederson appeared to throw in the towel for a chance to evaluate a 3rd string scrub there was barely any reason to evaluate. Since my team’s playoff fate was on the line, of course it was frustrating. I can’t blame any Giants fan who was pissed about that. It’s never fun watching your chance at the playoffs evaporate in real time.
But here’s the thing. The Giants were 6-10. They didn’t deserve the playoffs and never did. They didn’t earn it. Frankly if you have to rely on another team to lose to reach the playoffs, you don’t deserve the playoffs. Doug Pederson didn’t owe us shit. The Eagles didn’t owe us shit. Doug and the Eagles could play that game and do whatever the hell they wanted. They had nothing to play for anyway. They had been eliminated, it was week 17, I’m honestly surprised more eliminated teams don’t do shit like this in week 17. It’s a perfectly valid time to give some backups an evaluation before the roster decisions have to be made. If you have nothing to play for in a meaningless game, why not give Sudafed a few snaps for shits? The only motivation the Eagles had to win that game was for a small instance of pride to play spoiler. Playing spoiler gives their other rival a victory. Not a lot of motivation there.
So I’m mad that it happened because it hurt my team directly and I’m even more mad it robbed us of a 6-10 division winner, which would have been the funniest thing all season. I disagree with all the people who are outraged at the idea that the Giants even had a chance at the playoffs. “A 6-10 division winner is a stain on the sport!” fuck off. You know what we got instead? A 7-9 division winner. It’s not like we saved the integrity of football by not letting the Giants in. Washington honestly deserves the playoffs about as much as the Giants do. The Giants even beat them twice! Both teams are shit. The entire division was shit. If we are going to send a shit team to the playoffs, at least do me the favor of making it the funniest, most chaotic result possible. A 6-10 Giants team hosting Tom Brady and the Bucs in the wildcard would have been absolutely hilarious for the absolute frothing rage it would have inspired in the PURITY OF SPORT knuckleheads. Instead, we get a slightly less hilarious 7-9 WFT doing it instead. Still chaotic, I’m rooting for the TEAM 100% here, but it isn’t quite as funny or chaotic as a 6-10 team would have been. Especially given Brady’s history with the Giants.
Does Doug Pederson deserve to lose his job? No. Did he shame the sanctity of football? No. All the outrage is overblown. It’s overblown because it 1) pissed off New York Fans, a large and well known group of terrible people, and 2), It happened in primetime, which amplifies everything to the worst possible level. It was the last game of the season, and we were treated to two garbage teams playing a garbage game, and 3/4ths of the way through one of the teams just throws in the towel, ruining any chance at exciting football to close out the regular season. No wonder this drama became such a story, there wasn’t anything left to talk about. Honestly if this entire thing hadn’t directly involved the team I root for I would have been laughing my ass off the whole time. It was, frankly, absurdly hilarious.
I am finding the outrage and drama directed at Doug and the Eagles very entertaining though. It will for sure fire up the Giants for our next meeting, and it may have caused a locker room rift. Wentz is reportedly unhappy and wants a trade. Hurts was visibly upset on the sideline after being removed. There are other reports that numerous players and coaches were unhappy about it, either due to the timing (remember the game was very winnable at the time) or the decision to begin with. Reports like this are always to be taken with a grain of salt but where there is smoke there tends to be at least embers of fire.
Quick aside about that: I saw a few folks say those reports are bogus and probably just attempts to stir up drama, and that none of these angry instances were caught by the broadcast cameras. A fair and valid point. My counter argument to that is – maybe they just didn’t catch it on camera? There are a lot of people on a sideline talking at any given time, most of the players are wearing masks so we can’t even necessarily see angry yelling. Also, NBC’s presentation has gone down the tubes lately. They used to be incredible, but this year especially it feels like it’s become the Al and Cris chat hour. Something I learned from friend of the comic Arif Hasan is that coaches and booths actually rely on the broadcast replays to help make decisions, especially regarding challenges. If a broadcast isn’t prompt with a replay, they can’t get the info in time. Twice this year during SNF plays that should have been challenged and easily overturned were not challenged in time. One was the Tyreek Hill TD catch off a bounce, the other was Aaron Jones clearly stepping out of bounds on a long run. Both times NBC just let Collinsworth jabber and then showed the replay late, both announcers go “oh he stepped out! They should challenge!” but the next play was instantly snapped. After I learned this fact, I paid attention to Fox and CBS broadcasts: they are significantly more prompt with their replays. NBC is bad, fire Cris Collinsworth into the sun please and thank you.
What did I think of the actual move? I don’t have an issue with anything but the timing, really. Doug said he wanted to get Sudafed playing time before the game happened. But if he wanted to evaluate Sudafed, why not put him in sooner, like after halftime? What are you really going to learn in a single quarter of play about a guy who was a 3rd string loser? He came in and the Eagles instantly collapsed. Hurts may very well be the QB of the future for the Eagles if Wentz bails or continues to stink, why would you not keep him in and give him a chance to build his confidence or at least see how he handles it? Hurts was terrible at passing all game (his horrible throw on 4th down was a massive yikes) but he was also the only reason the Eagles were in the game to begin with, he had two rushing TDs. Let your rookie QB get some meaningless experience, don’t put in some worthless scrub with no value.
Let’s finish this up on the topic talking about Doug ruining the dignity of the sport. Mentioned earlier, I don’t blame any eliminated team for testing out bench players in the final weeks of the regular season. It makes perfect sense to me. As a Giants fan it certainly would have been more palatable if the Eagles had lost with honor by trying and failing or just straight up not trying from the start, but Doug can do what he wants. We don’t judge teams who rest starters (mostly, anyway) before the playoffs. Obviously I think all of us would prefer we see a team fight as hard as they can every game, but considering it is a business, I can’t be too mad about resting starters or whatnot when there isn’t anything but pride on the line. The Giants once gained a ton of respect from fans and pundits when they heroically threw themselves at the 15-0 Patriots in 2007, despite having no playoff positioning to fight for at the time. This will get me crucified, but I feel like that praise has always been overblown. The Giants obviously had something significant to play for in week 17 that year. Not playoff positioning, but something more symbolic. They had a chance to prevent the first 16-0 regular season team in history. That was obvious motivation in a situation no other team has ever been in. There was a lot more pride on the line in that game then your average final game when starters get rested. The very next year Coughlin rested all the starters in week 17 when the Giants had the #1 seed wrapped up, which kinda proved that all that bluster he spouted for week 17 was just that: bluster. The Giants played the Patriots hard because they wanted to knock them off. I think every team would have done the same in that position that season.
In short, fuck the Eagles, but whatever. Maybe win more than 6 games if you want to reach the playoffs. I am still 100% rooting for Brady to get eaten by Chase Young. I just wish Leonard Williams could have eaten him instead.
Didn’t Hurts have 75 yards passing when he was pulled from the game? He wasn’t exactly lighting it up. Now, Sudfeld was terrible, too, but he could have put on a Matt Flynn-type performance. You wouldn’t know unless you played him. And even after he showed that he was terrible, it would have been unprecedented to then bench him and put Hurts back in. I can’t think of a single game that has ever happened in.
he had 2 rushing tds, the only reason they were in that game
Because the defense of the team was not putting a spy on Hurts and letting him do whatever he wanted. In the 3rd qtr the Team started spying Hurts and you could tell Hirts didn’t know what to do. While Sudafed did horrible, his center didn’t help him by low balling the snap almost every play. (Maybe because Hurts is so small that Kelse was used to low balling the snap.) I honestly believe that even if Hurts had stayed in that the Eagles would have had similar results.
they were in the game hurts was playing fine against pretty much the greatest defense in the nfc (outside maybe saints) hurts looked cool calm and collected and if he stayed in the eagles wouldve won
The Giants D could have rocked Brady, but the team completely lacks talent to compete with anyone else. So even as it happened, I wasn’t very upset. The Giants had ample opportunities to win multiple games, but yea, 6-10 in the playoffs woulda been hilarious. I think WTF has more reason to be pissed off, because their victory is now tainted in the same way Michael Strahan’s sack record is.
So that leaves me conflicted. I think the major issue is how flagrantly Dougie was tanking. He didn’t bench Hurts over injury, or pass on a FG because his team is amazeballs on 4th down. His own players were angry and confused, in much the same way the Giants were when that #*$@&*$&@#*$&@*$ dumbass McDooDooFace benched Eli for Geno Smith. You’re unofficially ‘allowed’ to tank if you do it like a gentleman and disguise it so we can all look the other way. Saying you need to sit a rookie who started all of 3.75 games so you could see what the guy who has been on your roster for four years has? Very few people are stupid enough to believe that. Don’t treat us like we’re Trump.
Has he ruined the dignity of the game? No. But he’s potentially damaged his relationship with his rookie qb by not trusting him to finish out. He’s potentially damaged his relationship with all of his players by sending a horrible message- “Always give me everything; I’ll only give you everything sometimes.” I only know 4 Iggles fans, but they’re all livid. I would be, too. You want to talk about your blue collar lunch pail kind of people, this is it. There’s a reason Rocky never says: “Yo Adrieeennnnnne! Dis fight don’ matter, I ain’t gettin’ nuttin outta it. I’ma jus’ take a punch tada chin an’ fall over, kay?”
Last year NYG beat WTF in a fight for draft position. NYG played to win, beat them in OT. It cost them Chase Young. I’m 1000% ok with that. Would it have been nice if they played hard but still lost in the last second? I wouldn’t have complained. But if they benched Jones and put in Alex Tanney to “see what they had”? I would still be angry today.
So in the end, I love what Dougie did. He further damaged Philadelphia, turning them into a laughing stock for a few days, and every player in that locker room will spend an entire offseason wondering what kind of stooge they have at coach. There are now TWO angry quarterbacks they need to deal with, and the best possible outcome is if this pisses off the Giants enough that the bitter taste lingers until next year, and those tight losses this year – 4 of them by a combined total of 10 pts – might turn into wins, because relying on another team to get you into the playoffs is never a good idea. I’d take all of that as a mighty fine consolation prize.
Good writeup. To your last paragraph, I like it for the same reasons
“I only know 4 Iggles fans, but they’re all livid.”
I know many more. Most do not care.
PLEASE RESPOND: Do/did you watch Gridiron Heights?
DAVE EDIT: For fucks sake yes, I’ve said yes, and that I thought it was fine. You are singlehandedly making me hate it by the constant comments
For like the 5th time, I have watched it. It’s fine. Im going to start editing your comments to be farts if you don’t stop asking every 3rd comment section
he IS living up to his username…
just saying, no laws stopping you from editing him right now XD
sorry for being annoying
what’s a gridiron heights? and should dave watch it?
When I am king, this will all be moot, because no team in a professional sports league that finishes under .500 will be allowed to participate in the playoffs.
That seventh paragraph is a grand example of a Twitter-esque rationalization of how something that no one except the people directly involved know what actually happened PROBABLY happened in a way I would find most entertaining/enraging.
That 07 end of season game was probably a big motivation and boost for the team. The Giants almost beat the Patriots, it helped show both the Giants how good they were despite constantly being told they weren’t and that the Patriots are beatable.
I definitely agree with you Dave on the Giants not deserving the playoffs this year, however Pederson wanting to see Sudfeld in action is bs. Sudfelds been on the team for 4 years, wouldn’t you rather see how your rookie, potential future, QB will do with the game on the line while down 3 points?
From all the points you mentioned it does sound like this caused some tension in the team and probably lowered Pederson in the eyes of at least a few of the players. Probably not worth moving up 3 spots.
Like BigBlue mentioned up there, this has shades of McDoofus benching Eli on it and I agree but this also means – this was not Pederson’s call. It was management and he had to do it or he was probably getting the boot. Bench Hurts to save your job even though it might make a bunch of players angry seems like a reasonable payoff for me
it absolutely makes sense to go hard against a team you might see in the playoffs. even if you don’t win , you gain valuable insight, which is just what the giants did that year.
I was talking to a friend that felt very strongly about this recently (surprisingly enough, a Patriots fan), and it seems like the issue here is the fact that the Eagles were blatantly throwing a game *midgame*. We’re all aware that tanking happens. We celebrated the Jets for tanking for Sunshine by going 0-16, then immediately started clowning on them as soon as they pulled two completely unnecessary wins out of their rear ends at the end of the season. It’s normal and expected, however, the difference that they highlighted is that the Jets (and all other teams that tank) dismantle their roster in the offseason. They never actually try to throw games during the year.
I kind of got what they were saying. It’s one thing to throw in the towel before the season starts and accept that it’s a lost year. Intentionally losing a game when you have a realistic shot at winning is whole different story. You don’t play to lose games and you damn sure shouldn’t coach to lose games, and Eagles players have every right to be upset with the decision there.
I personally don’t see the issue with either strategy, though. If we let teams blow everything up in the offseason and give up for a whole year, I don’t see why we shouldn’t let them do it midgame. Philadelphia had nothing to play for outside of a better draft pick. Maybe Doug Pederson could have timed it better, but what he did only helped Philadelphia in the long run. I found it pretty funny, and I’m not buying the intense outrage this is generating. I get being kind of irked by what Pederson did, but furious? lol why?
Hey, remember when the Bucs pulled their starters W17 when they were winning against the Saints and ended up losing, thus ensuring they could draft Rapist Wilson? How long did the outrage over that last, until the next slate of games started? The only reason people are still mad is that it was the last game
Lmfao I forgot that happened. You’re definitely right about that though. This is only news worthy because it happened on National Television for all of America to see and it was a game that had playoff implications. Stupid faux outrage per usual.
Now I want to see a picture of Dave with a man bun.
i want him to start drawing himself with a MB
It was the timing of the quarterback switch that upset the players. The players all knew this was being treated as a preseason game. 10 guys who could have played (plus Carson Wentz) did not dress for the game. Doug Pederson said mid-week that he was going to put Sudfeld in the game.
The problem is the organization overestimated what the WFT, led by a one legged Alex Smith, could accomplish.
The Eagles were never supposed to be in position to make it a game. (Side note I don’t think going for it at the goal line was part of the tank. Doug Pederson likes to do stuff like that, the field was slick as snot, and Jake Elliot has been terrible on ‘chip shots’ all season.) Blame the WFT for not being able to put down a bad team that was openly trying to lose all week. It’s WFT’s fault that the Eagles tying one arm behind their back was not enough. It’s WFT’s fault they had to figuratively shoot themselves in the foot to escape with the loss.
And yeah, any Giants fan upset about what went down should be more upset that the Giants couldn’t win more than six games in a historically weak division.
I guess I forgot what preseason games were like since there wasn’t one this year. As an impartial observer of the game I was seeing the moves being questioned as business decisions (which they likely were) and it occurs to me now that it did play out like a preseason game.
Copypasta job but still:
Eagles throwing the final game was probably for the better for the Giants, why?
Notice how each time the Giants makes it to the Superb Owl, their win record seem to go down?
1986: 14-2
1990: 13-3
2000: 12-4
2007: 10-6
2011: 9-7
There’s still window of opportunities for 3 more titles. Imagine if they pull off a threepeat with records of 8-8, 7-9, and 6-10. Now that would be the worst dynasty ever!
Also expect the victims to be the Pats somehow.
Hey, there’s another reason they could have done it: intentionally to screw over the Giants as part of their rivalry.
“Tell them, Ron. Tell New York. I want them to know it was ME.”
I don’t like that pederson is getting destroyed for this when the argument he was in on it is the exact opposite argument people use when the jets come up.
The jets had a win all but locked up against the raiders when gregg williams inexplicably called 2 all-blitzes in a row to give the game away. But all I hear is how players/coaches (You even referenced this yourself in this article Dave) would never give a game away and that they have their pride and future contracts to play for.
But suddenly, pederson does this and the exact opposite narrative happens, where the coach HAD to have been in on it despite reports saying that they were always planning on this, and despite the jets loss imo being even more blatant a possibility of throwing a game, and he’s being raked about “integrity” when as the comic even said, everyone was congratulating the jets every time they lost and was ridiculing them when they won, which is way more “non-integrity” imo. Is the disparity really that more people were just paying attention to this game? If so that’s a real shame. Pederson doesn’t deserve all the hate imo even if he DID tank purposely, but if he didn’t, I think it’s kinda lame for people to pull out the “coaches always coach to win” argument to defend the jets and then just arbitrarily dismiss it against pederson.
That’s okay, Dave. The final revenge from everyone will come when our genius GM Howie Roseman uses the 6th pick on some projected 3rd-or-4th-round WR from a small D-II school.
Hurts was painful to watch. Yes he had 2 rushing TD’s , but his passing was at best Tebowish, and at worst full Peterman. The damage was being done on the ground but Dougs decision to go for it on 4th Down was ridiculous, especially with that much time left on the clock.
He didnt really have an out here. If they had won, WFT fans would have criticised him for playing all his starters in a meaningless game. An outcome that sees NY Fans crying and the oh-so-petty NY Press attacking the Eagles is, on reflection, worth it.
The Browns make the playoffs and two days later the entire offensive coaching staff plus the one guy who deserves to play in a playoff game more than anyone else gets COVID. Because of course that’s what happened.
First off, my hair is already at man bun length! Ha! (I hate it)
Second, agree 100%. Not only is it funny (and fun) to have a losing team in the playoffs, the argument for more “deserving” teams fall flat with me.
Want to be in the playoffs? WIN. YOUR. DIVISION. Then you are in.
It reminds me of the defensive players that were saying they hated Cam’s superman celebration. Man, you hate it, then stop him from scoring.
I hate to laugh at your plight, Dave, but your “reaction shot” in Panel 4 cracks me up. Been there.
If it’s any help, picture me during The Drive (spit-take + beer can Gronkspike) or The Fumble (angrily stripping off and tossing my Browns sweatshirt into a firepit where it immediately WHOOMPED into flame like the Cuyahoga River)….
(yeah, I’m old…)
Ugh, imagine being a Washington fan and having to listen to this. My team won and made the playoffs and this shit is all anyone wants to talk about.
Imagine being a Washington Fan …….
Pederson didn’t owe the Giants anything, but he DID owe the NFL as a whole a 6-10 playoff team. This season could have been legendary…
I feel like what ended up happening is far funnier and more chaotic than the Giants sneaking into the playoffs. How on earth does a team make the playoffs while dealing with all the Dwayne Haskins nonsense?! And the way it happened, and the way it riled up Giants fans just makes it funnier. Obviously it’s not funny to you, and if I was a Giants fan I’d be totally on board with everything you’re saying. But as a fan with no skin in this particular game, the way it all played out was most excellent.
IMO, this was the most fitting way to decide this garbage division.
As a Pats fan, bad things happening to the Giants is a balm to my heart. But I can’t forgive the Eagles for denying us a historically pathetic playoff berth. Just imagine the chaos, resentment, anger, disbelief. It would have been so beautiful.
especially when those giants somehow beat the tompa brady braydaneers
Now let’s see. If WTF beat Tom, that’s gonna be really funny. Not that I dislike TB12, or hold a grudge against him for leaving the Pats, but if a 7-9 team beat a real contender for the Super Bowl, that would be a laughinstock in the NFL. No team should qualified for the playoffs with a record under 500. They should take the best seed left out when it happens.
You say that but the seventh seed was already the BEARS. The NFC was just not capable of fielding a full roster of playoff teams this year.
The funniest thing about this is definitely the faux outrage of fans of a team that finished 6-10 saying they deserved a playoff spot. I mean, im pretty certain those same fans have been calling for the head of Jones / Gettleman / Judge for the majority of the season. NY Fans are, probably more than most, incredibly fickle.
“Frankly if you have to rely on another team to lose to reach the playoffs, you don’t deserve the playoffs.”
Not sure about this one. A loss is a loss. If it came in week 5 instead of week 17 you wouldn’t be saying this. The border case I can think of is if there’s weird tiebreaker stuff going on and you’re relying on a team to lose that already has their playoff spot and probably won’t play their starters the entire game.