Man, the Giants needed this.
Their co-owner, John Mara, who wears the losses like blood on his sleeve and is battling cancer, needed this.
Head coach Brian Daboll, who’s been the most recent target of the social media mob, needed this.
Every player in the Giants locker room, especially those who’ve endured loss after loss after loss to the Eagles, needed this.
The faithful fans, who were loud and made a difference Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, needed this.
Everyone needs some positive reinforcement at least once in a while.
And the Giants earned it in spades on this night, upsetting the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles 34-17 in a result that must have tasted like expensive champagne, even though it was a mere Week 6 game in the middle of October and it lifted the Giants’ record to just 2-4.
The Eagles had defeated the Giants in seven of the teams’ previous eight meetings, 16 of the past 20, dating back a decade.
The Eagles have been the Giants’ daddy for too long.
There’ve been blowout losses (see the 38-7 Eagles divisional playoff win in 2023). There have been heartbreaking losses. And then there was the Saquon Barkley revenge game, the 176 rushing yards in a 28-3 Eagles laugher at MetLife last October.
Make no mistake: This was an exorcism for the Giants and their fans, starved for a winner.
They clearly have winners in the two rookies — quarterback Jaxson Dart, who completed 17 of 25 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown and added a rushing TD, and running back Cam Skattebo, who rushed for 98 yards and three TDs.
Just four days earlier, in a terrible giveaway loss to the Saints in New Orleans, Dart turned the ball over three times and Skattebo lost a fumble that was returned 86 yards for a TD.
Thank goodness for youth and short memories.
The Giants took a 27-17 lead on a bull-rush 1-yard TD by the relentless Cam Skattebo halfway through the third quarter. It was the second of his three TDs
The Giants had a massive scare on their next offensive possession when Dart was sacked by Patrick Johnson and remained on the turf. After being attended to, he trotted off the field but was brought into the tent to be evaluated for a concussion.
On the next series, he emerged from the tent several minutes later, cleared to play on.
The Giants put the game away on a Cor’Dale Flott interception of Jalen Hurts and a 68-yard return with 11:25 remaining in the game.
The interception, the first of the year thrown by Hurts, led to Skattebo’s third TD of this magical night for a stunning 34-17 lead with 9:41 remaining.
If there were any worry of an Eagles’ comeback, that was dashed when Giants safety Dane Belton forced a Johan Dotson fumble that was recovered by cornerback Dru Phillips with 6:50 remaining in the game.
The Eagles began the game like they planned to make up for their lack of Saquon Barkley’s use (six carries) in Sunday’s loss to the Broncos.
Hurts handed the ball to the former Giants star running back on the first two plays from scrimmage, and Barkley rushed for gains of 18 and 13 yards, amassing 31 yards on the first two plays. He would run 10 more times in the first quarter for 27 yards.
The Eagles took a 3-0 lead on a 42-yard Jake Elliott field goal thanks to Barkley’s early work.
The Giants answered on their first possession, taking a 7-3 lead on a dynamic 20-yard scramble by Dart, who’d found no one open and just took off like a rocket.
The Giants rookie quarterback blew a kiss to the crowd and shook his head.
That Giants opening-drive touchdown put Dart in the same category as Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes. According to ESPN, Dart and Mahomes are the only quarterbacks since at least 1991 to lead their team to a TD on the opening drive in each of their first three NFL starts.
The Giants took a 13-3 lead on a 35-yard Dart scoring pass to Wan’Dale Robinson, who deked out of a whiffed tackle by Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba with 5:37 remaining in the first quarter.
That TD marked the first time the Giants scored more than seven points in a first quarter in their past 81 games, the second-longest streak in NFL history.
After that Giants score, the Eagles began to air it out with Jalen Hurts slinging passes to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
They cut the lead to 13-10 on a nifty 3-yard TD by tight end Dallas Goedert, who took a shovel flip from Hurts, who was 5-of-6 for 68 yards on the series.
The Eagles took a 17-13 lead with 6:56 remaining in the first half, featuring their patented — and nearly unstoppable — Tush Push.
They ran the play four consecutive times, and finally Hurts broke the plane of the end zone to cap a 13-play, 74-yard drive that ate 7:54 off the second-quarter clock.
The Giants answered with a 4-yard touchdown run by Skattebo with 1:19 remaining in the half to take a 20-17 halftime lead.
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