The New York Giants are crying foul after watching the Philadelphia Eagles lay down for the Washington Football Team on Sunday. Heading into the Week 17 finale, the Eagles listed 10 starters out with injuries or COVID issues.
Making matters worse, head coach Doug Pederson benched rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts for backup Nate Sudfeld in the second half of the 20-14 loss to Washington.
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Had the Eagles won, the Giants would’ve been crowned NFC East champions thanks to their 23-19 win earlier in the day over the Dallas Cowboys.
While Pederson said he was playing to win, many Giants think the Eagles tanked, giving Washington the division title, with several players hitting Twitter on Sunday night to vent their frustration:
During the broadcast of Sunday night’s game, NBC Sports analyst Cris Collinsworth also questioned the move to bench Hurts: “I couldn’t have done what Philadelphia did.”
If you’re expecting the NFL to weigh in on the Eagles’ roster and lineup decisions on Sunday, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero says you will be sorely disappointed.
The NFL’s longstanding position has been that it’s solely the club’s decision regarding who to play, for now long, etc. So while the circumstances (Sunday) are unique, the #Eagles aren’t the first team to play backups in Week 17, and the league historically hasn’t gotten involved.
However Giants defensive back Logan Ryan let the Eagles off the hook, according to NBC Sports’ Peter King:
Fifteen minutes after the game, I got veteran Giants DB Logan Ryan on the phone. I’d hoped he’d come out with barrels blazing. “Wish I could give you the explosive stuff you wanted,” Ryan said a few minutes before midnight. “There will be a lot of opinions about whether they were trying to win. You want to play the game to win, but I don’t play for the Eagles, I don’t coach for the Eagles. It’s their team. Winning six games doesn’t give us much right to get pissed off about this. We didn’t play consistent enough all year to earn it.”
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