Eagles Lose Seventh Straight Game Following Offensive Disaster Against Giants
Andrew Mills | NJ.com
Not even a quarterback change could spark this Eagles offense.
The Philadelphia Eagles officially wrapped up their first half of the 2026 NFL season Sunday afternoon, with a matchup against one of their biggest rivals, the New York Giants. The two teams find themselves in situations that, at the beginning of the season, many would’ve assumed were the opposite. The Giants currently lead the NFC East, while the Eagles are in dead last.
The Eagles have had nothing go right this season, and now are on their third starting quarterback of the season, as former Dallas Cowboy Joe Milton, who was just signed last month, was set to replace Tanner McKee.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the quarteback change did almost nothing for the offense, as the team only musted up one offensive touchdown. The defense looked solid all game, recoridng a season-high six team sacks, but New York did just enough more on both sides of the ball, pulling out the 19-11 win.
Phialdlephia’s offense was awful nealry all game, totaling seven three-and-out drives. In the second half, they were even worse, as they totaled jsut three first downs and 87 total yards, and majority of them came on the final two drvies of the game when New York was playing prevent defense.
After winning the toss and deferring to the second half, Jake Elliott kicked off to JJ McCarthy and the rest of the Giants’ offense. McCarthy got moving early, hitting Isaiah Likely on a 27-yard catch-and-run and Darnell Mooney for a 17-yard reception to set New York already in field goal range.
However, back-to-back incompletions and a third-down sack from Zack Baun forced John Harbaugh to send his field goal unit out, and rookie kicker Dominic Zvada drilled a 53-yarder to give New York the 3-0 lead.
Joe Milton trotted out for his first drive in his first career NFL start, but that didn’t last long, going three-and-out. Back with the ball, McCarthy hit Malik Nabers for a 22-yard catch to put them past midfield, but another third-down sack, this time from Jonathan Greenard, forced another Zvada field goal to double the Giants’ lead.
Down six points, Milton’s second drive of the game got off to a better start than his first, as he hit Dallas Goedert for a 12-yard catch and scrambled for 19 yards on the next play.
On third down, Milton looked downfield for Darius Cooper, but a defensive pass interference set up a Saquon Barkley three-yard touchdown three plays later. A penalty on Elliott’s extra point made Nick Sirianni go for a two-point conversion from the one, and Milton tush pushed his way into the end zone to make it 8-6 Philadelphia.
Following the touchdown from Barkley, both teams traded punts, but on the Eagles’ punt, Giants return man Charlie Jones fumbled, giving Philadelphia the ball right back. However, two plays later, New York’s rookie linebacker Arvell Reese came screaming off the edge and strip-sacked Milton, giving the Giants the ball back.
New York’s offense didn’t do much with the great field position, punting right back to the Eagles. As the second quarter wore on, both teams traded punts again, but with under five minutes to play, Philadelphia’s offense got rolling.
Milton hit Makai Lemon for eight yards, and two plays later he found Cooper open over the middle for a 20-yard reception. Past midfield, short gains from Elijah Mitchell and Cooper brought up a 4th-and-1, and Sirianni elected to go for it. On the fourth down, Barkley took the handoff but was immediately stuffed in the backfield by Jevon Holland, resulting in a turnover on downs.
With under two minutes until the half, the Giants instantly went three-and-out following the turnover, pinning the Eagles inside their own two-yard line. Philadelphia couldn’t gain any real yardage backed up that deep, but punter Braden Mann made sure New York wouldn’t steal any points before the break.
Mann drilled an 86-yard punt down to the eight-yard line, forcing the Giants to kneel out the half. The 86-yard punt is the longest in the NFL since 2001 and is tied for 10th best all time. However, it wasn’t the longest punt in Eagles’ history, as Randall Cunningham’s 91-yard punt from 1989 still holds the franchise’s record.
Out of the half, the Eagles offense got off to a rough start, going three-and-out on their first two drives, as the second-half offense continued to look awful. Meanwhile, New York’s offense went three-and-out on its first drive, but McCarthy was injured after a hit from Baun.
On the following drive, backup Jameis Winston checked in for McCarthy and Winston led the Giants right down the field for their first touchdown of the game. Winston hit Malachi Fields for 16 yards on an early third down, and Winston kept the drive going a few plays later with a 10-yard scramble.
Winston then found Mooney open for 27 yards, putting New York in the red zone, and another pass to Fields set them up inside the five. On 2nd-and-goal, Winston dropped back and found Likely wide open in the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.
Down 13-8, the Eagles needed to get rolling on offense, and they did the exact opposite, going three-and-out for the third straight time this half. After missing McCarthy on the previous drive, he trotted back out for the next drive as the fourth quarter began.
McCarthy hit Nabers for 10 yards and a first down, and on third down, two plays later, McCarthy used his legs to pick up the first down. Another reception from Mooney put New York across midfield, but the drive once again stalled out, forcing another field goal. Zvada ran out for the 38-yarder and drilled it, making it 16-8 Giants.
While Dallas Goedert was able to grab a 19-yard pass on the first play of the next drive, but that was the only offense the Eagles could muster, punting for the fourth time of the half. On the punt, Mann fumbled the snap, and a botched kick plus a fumble from Philadelphia set up the Giants already in field goal range.
New York’s offense looked content with just kicking a field goal to go up 11, and Zvada went out and drilled a 49-yarder, making it 19-8 for the Giants with four minutes left to play.
The Eagles offense finally started getting some plays together, mainly due to the Giants’ defense playing prevent, and managed to get into field goal range at the two-minute warning. Needing 11 points, Sirianni set Elliott out for the field goal to go down eight, and he drilled it.
After attempting and failing an onside kick, the Giants would run three straight times to burn the Eagles’ timeouts, giving Philadelphia a chance to go 90 yards to have a chance to tie the game.
Milton hit Hollywood BRown on a 16-yard pass, and despite being sacked, Milton found Goedert open for 11 yards for a first down to extend the game. With under 40 seconds left, Milton hit Mitchell open, but the running back did not get out of bounds, forcing the Eagles to burn precious seconds and bringing up a fourth down.
On the fourth down, New York brought an all-out blitz and Darius Alexander sacked Milton to end the game, with the Giants pulling out the 19-11 win. It’s the seventh stright loss for the Eagles and it marks the first win in Phialdlephia for the Giants in 13 years.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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