Despite allowing just 13 points against the Giants, Eagles linebacker said they should have tackled Sequon Barkley better. Photo by Jesse Garner

EAST RUTHERFORD: Time will tell if what happened Thursday night at MetLife Stadium was the turning point for the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles or just the result of playing a bad opponent.

The Birds (3-3) pounded the New York Football Giants (1-5) 34-13 in a game that was never seriously in doubt from the start.

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said he was happy to see his team play well in all aspects of the game, especially with the pressure that comes with a 2-3 record and possibly the season at stake.

“I am very proud of the guys, the coaches, and really how they don’t panic,” Pederson said at his press conference. “It’s a resilient group. How they hang together, work every single day, come to work every single day and get better. When things kind of get piled on them here in the last couple of weeks, but they don’t listen to it, and they come out and play like they do tonight. It’s a credit to that team and those coaches in there, and I give a lot of credit to them.”

Quarterback Carson Wentz easily put in his best performance after coming back from a serious knee injury last year that kept him out of the Eagles Super Bowl run and the first two games of 2018.

Wentz was 26 of 36 for 278 yards, three touchdown passes, no interceptions or lost fumbles and a quarterback rating of 122.2. He was sacked just once.

Wentz was asked what he thought was the difference against the Giants that wasn’t there the past five games?

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I think more than anything we just stayed ahead of the chains. I think we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot. And really offensively and defensively we just fed off each other. I think that’s something we do so well when we get that rolling and so tonight it was good to get it going.”

The Eagles got off to fast start on all three phases of the game. First the Giants fumbled the opening kickoff. But a a review gave the ball back to to Big Blue when it was ruled Jawill Davis’ fumble was caused by the ground.

On Eli Manning’s second pass of the game, the ball was tipped by Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks right into the hands of fellow linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill who took the ball back to the Giants 16-yard line.

After an incomplete pass and a three-yard run by Wendell Smallwood, Wentz went pack to pass, only to have the play break down. But with an across-his-body throw, Wentz hit Alshon Jeffery with a 13-yard touchdown pass to take an early 7-0 lead.

Jeffery was asked if the first touchdown was just a scramble drill.

“Yeah it was a scramble drill,” said Jeffery, who finished with eight catches for 74 yard and two touchdowns. “I mean Carson did a heck of a job keeping the play alive and I just scrambled and he just threw it and made a heck of a play.”

The Giants came back but could not finish a drive that started with a Sequon Barkley 46-yard run. Big Blue settled fora Aldrick Rosas 33-yard field goal.

After the Eagles were unable to move the ball on their next possession, the Eagles defense started to really get to Eli Manning.

Defensive end Michael Bennett recovered from his nightmare game last week against the Vikings with his best performance as an Eagle. The Giants started their next drive at their own nine-yard line. Bennett came up with strip sack that was recovered by Nate Solder at the one.

The Giants drive fizzled quickly and the Birds started their next drive at the Giants 44-yard line 4:49 left in first quarter.

Wentz led a balanced drive that ended with a Corey Clement one-yard run. 14-3 Eagles.

The Eagles third touchdown featured another broken play. This time Nelson Agholor found himself wide open in another scramble drill and hauled in a 58-yard catch.
Agholor talked about the play.

“It was just that relationship with Carson, you know?” said Agholor, who finished with three catches for 91 yards. “I had one route, then I knew he was going to set up and just chuck it. That’s what he does. And I was happy he did.”

Giants were not moving the ball. MetLife Stadium crowd is booing their team with lust. The game was over except to watch Sequon Barkley try to make a big play.

The first round pick (second overall) out of Penn State went wild statistically but the Giants could not transfer his brilliant effort into points.

Barkley finished with 130 yards rushing on 13 carries including a 50-yard touchdown run. He caught nine passes for 99 yards.

“We got to find a way to finish games. Offensive wise, put more points on the board,” said Barkley, who became the first running back since 2016 to rush for over 100 yards on the Eagles. “(We have to) Stop shooting ourselves in the foot, making mistakes, and that’s really it. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you get it done, you just got to find a way to get it done.”

Barkley was asked about his performance against Philadelphia.

“How did I feel about my performance tonight… Doesn’t matter to me,” He said. “We didn’t get the win. To be completely honest, I don’t care. As long as we get the win, I don’t care if I went for however many yards or even if I went for 30 yards, if we won, if we got the win, I would be satisfied, but at the end of the day we didn’t so none of that matters.”

Barkley was asked the Giants continue to struggle on offense. Aside from last week, it just seems like every week.

“That’s a great question and that’s something that we have to figure out as a team, as an offensive unit,” Barkley said. “We have the talent. We have a great coaching staff. We just got to come together, continue to play our butts off and good things will come. We just got to continue to believe in each other, keep a positive mindset. Obviously we can’t be happy with where we’re at. At 1-5, that’s not acceptable at all, but we got to stick together as a team and we can’t fall apart.”

Hicks was asked about what it’s like to tackle Barkley.

“He’s a great player, great player,” Hicks said at his locker after the game. “I don’t know how the stats on how many broken tackles he had today…but he’s a strong runner, he’s illusive, he’s got great moves. I have a lot of respect for him.”

Hicks changed his tone a bit when told of Odell Beckham, Jr.’s comments that the Eagles whole scheme was centered around stopping Beckham and Manning, not so much Barkley.

“I think if we tackled Saquon better, we probably don’t have that conversation,” said Hicks, who led the Eagles with 10 total tackles. “I think we just played sound defense, to be honest with you. We understand that Odell is an explosive player, one of the most explosive players in the league. So you have to account for him. Week to week he’s probably got people all over him…people watching him, covering him. I don’t know what that’s such a surprise (to Beckham). I think if we tackle Sequon, it’s a little different. He’s a great back. They’ve got a lot of great players on their offense, very explosive. But I think our defense did a great job executing the game plan. I think we has a really great game plan.”

Beckham finished with six catches for 44 yards and had little impact on the game.

Manning finished 24 of 43 for 281 yards, one interception and a quarterback rating of 66.1. He was sacked four times and hit 13 times.

The 37-year-old 15-year veteran with two Super Bowl rings said he agreed that the Eagles were committed to stopping Beckham…and him.

“Yes, they definitely had a plan to slow down Odell,” Manning said. “A lot of teams do. We could still run our offense. We have guys that get open and make plays. We have to do a better job of executing our offense. That is what it is about. Trying to move the ball. We moved the ball decent at times and had some big plays in the run game, a screen to Saquon, who got the ball in the red zone, but we have to get the ball in the end zone. It was not great, but you can’t get field goals right there. We have to find ways to get touchdowns.”

Manning was asked where his confidence level at right now. Many in and around the team are starting to question his ability to lead this team

“My confidence in myself is good,” Manning said. “I know I can play. I just have to figure out how to be more consistent and be better on offense.”

If he doesn’t…the winds of change are starting to kick up.*

Follow Al Thompson on Twitter @thompsoniii