Eagles vs. Giants in Week 8: Here are the numbers that matter
From Cam Skattebo’s historic pace to Jaxson Dart’s success against the blitz, these numbers inform Sunday’s Eagles-Giants rematch.
The Eagles and Giants meet for the second time in three games Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, and the Eagles will be aiming to flip the script after taking an embarrassing 34-17 defeat in Week 6 at MetLife Stadium.
The Eagles have plenty of things they studied after that loss, and some of them showed on the field Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
What will happen in Week 8? Here’s what some of the numbers tell us:
23.9%
The Eagles don’t really need a reminder of this, but the Giants offense goes as Cam Skattebo goes.
The rookie had 110 yards from scrimmage, including 98 on the ground, two weeks ago at MetLife Stadium. He bowled over Zack Baun and then scored on the next play. Then he did a backflip.
Skattebo accounted for 30% of the Giants’ yards that night, which is ahead of his season-long average of 23.9% of New York’s offense. If Skattebo stays at this pace, that would be the second-highest mark by a Giants rookie since 2000, behind only Saquon Barkley’s 33.5% in 2018, according to Next Gen Stats.
The Eagles will need better answers for Skattebo. They were much better against Jordan Mason on Sunday in Minneapolis, where they held Mason to 3.8 yards per carry. Skattebo was at 5.2 a week earlier, in part because of his ability to run through tackles. Since taking over as the lead back in Week 3, Skattebo is up to 31 forced missed tackles, which trails only the San Francisco 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey during that stretch.
Brandon Graham could help the Eagles at setting the edge against the run, but it’s unclear if Graham will be ready to go for Sunday’s game.
» READ MORE: What to expect from Brandon Graham? Here’s how other NFL players who unretired fared.
193
Rookie quarterbacks tend to be beatable by blitzing them and causing havoc, but Jaxson Dart defied that law Sunday vs. the Denver Broncos.
Dart was 8-for-14 for 193 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception when facing pressure from the Broncos, according to Next Gen. The interception was obviously a negative result, but the 193 passing yards were the third-highest total against the blitz by a quarterback this season.
Impressive stuff from the 25th overall pick in this year’s draft.
This isn’t a departure from his success when the teams met two weeks ago. Dart was 9 of 13 for 99 yards and a touchdown when the Eagles blitzed him. He has been blitzed on a league-high 38.6% of his drop backs, according to Next Gen.
Perhaps the lesson learned from the film Sunday for the Eagles will be Denver’s success when not sending extra rushers. Against four or fewer rushers, Dart went 7-for-19. The Broncos also kept him in check with his legs. He was solid when throwing on the move, but he did not gain any scrambling yards, a departure from his previous starts.
The Eagles have plenty to clean up there from the last matchup, and scrambling quarterbacks have been the Achilles’ heel for their defense, as Vic Fangio pointed out last week when asked about why the run defense has struggled. Dart accounted for 58 yards and a touchdown on the ground two weeks ago.
4
The Eagles almost doubled up their under-center play-action drop backs in Sunday’s win at Minnesota.
They entered with just five such plays in their first six games, and on Sunday they called four play-action drop backs. Those plays resulted in four completions for 121 yards and a touchdown.
It was a tendency-breaking day. Before Sunday, Jalen Hurts handed off on 42 of the 48 times he lined up under center.
The Eagles have at least given the Giants something different to think about.
» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 8 vs. the Giants
2.4
The Eagles’ running game hasn’t been good, and it was especially bad Sunday vs. the Vikings, who boast a pretty formidable defensive front. But Barkley managed just 44 yards on 18 carries, and his 2.4 yards per attempt ranked as his second-lowest output of the season.
Here’s a big reason the running game is struggling: Barkley, according to Next Gen, has been contacted behind the line of scrimmage at a rate of 58%, the highest in the NFL. He has gained the fewest yards before contact (minus-2) among running backs with at least 30 carries directed between the tackles this season.
Last season, Barkley gained 264 rushing yards before contact on carries between the tackles, second in the NFL.
19
Rookie edge rusher and Philadelphia’s own Abdul Carter is having a pretty good rookie season with the Giants. The No. 3 overall pick leads the NFL with 19 quick pressures, according to Next Gen, and has 29 total pressures this season. Only seven players have generated more pressure. A quick pressure occurs when a player pressures a quarterback within 2.5 seconds on a passing play.
Carter has caused havoc, but he was nullified two weeks ago when Lane Johnson held him without a pressure across 14 matchups. Carter managed just two pressures in that game, according to Pro Football Focus, his lowest single-game total this season.
72.9%
We highlighted the Eagles’ playoff chances in this exercise last week, and it’s worth following up here.
Consecutive losses in games the Eagles were supposed to win put them in a precarious spot, trending toward being a coin flip to make the playoffs, according to FTN Fantasy’s projections. But the win against the Vikings bumped the Eagles’ playoff chances nearly 14 points to 72.9%.
The Eagles are one of six NFC teams with a 5-2 record. Getting to 6-2 before the bye would be helpful, and would likely increase that playoff percentage slightly.