The NFL has fully embraced a full slate of Thursday night games, justifying the health-and-safety realities by pointing to in-game injury rates when a team has a full week to rest and when it has a four-day turnaround.
That selective statistical focus overlooks the basic reality that some players injured on one Sunday would be ready by the next Sunday, but won’t be ready by Thursday.
For Giants quarterback J.J. McCarthy, the three extra days to recover from the hip pointer he suffered on Sunday would be useful. As it stands, the clock is ticking toward Thursday night’s game against the Commanders.
Coach John Harbaugh told reporters on Monday that McCarthy is “doing well,” and that it “does look like he’s going to play” on Thursday night.
Even if he’s not playing, there’s strategic value in keeping the Commanders in the dark about whether it will be McCarthy or Jameis Winston. Either way, it would be wise for Washington to be ready for both guys, since McCarthy could aggravate the injury or suffer a new one.
That’s the reality of rolling with McCarthy. His fearlessness means he’ll take hits. The more hits he takes, the more likely it is that he’ll be hurt.
Winston did well during the brief time McCarthy went to the locker room, presumably for a quick visit with Dr. Needle. Winston completed six passes for 71 yards and a touchdown — half of the total passes McCarthy completed in the rest of the game.
In the end, the Giants got another win. They’re 5-2-1. And they’re taking control of the NFC East, especially with the Eagles at 2-7, the Commanders at 2-5-1, and the Cowboys at 4-5.
McCarthy has a higher floor than Winston. Winston, when things are clicking, could have a higher ceiling. And he seems to be better when he enters a game cold, giving the Giants the best of both worlds as they try to turn a season that seemed lost seven weeks ago tonight into something special.
Giants Clips
The Giants played without running back Cam Skattebo in Sunday’s 19-11 win over the Eagles, but they do not expect his absence from the lineup to linger.
Head coach John Harbaugh said at a Monday press conference that the expectation is that Skattebo will be “full go” for Thursday night’s game against the Commanders.
Skattebo suffered a hamstring injury late in the Giants’ Week 7 win over the Texans and missed practice for two days coming out of the bye week. He returned on Friday and Harbaugh said he was close to being ready for the Eagles, but that the team had the quick turnaround in mind when making a plan for managing his health.
Devin Singletary was the lead back for the Giants against the Eagles and he ran 21 times for 31 yards. Gregory Desrosiers had 20 yards on three carries.
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers took to social media on Sunday night to express his displeasure with how he was portrayed during the Fox broadcast of his team’s 19-11 win over the Eagles.
In a post to his Instagram story that was later taken down, Nabers took particular issue with Greg Olsen’s characterization of him. After quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw a pass behind Nabers in the fourth quarter, Fox showed Nabers gesturing with his hands and Olsen said he was letting the quarterback know to put the ball in front of him. Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis said Nabers’s “body language has been terrible” throughout the game with Olsen agreeing that it wasn’t good.
The broadcast also showed Nabers slamming his helmet on the sideline at one point and sideline reporter Pam Oliver discussed Nabers’s desire to have the ball come his way. Olsen went on to say that there is “a fine line between being demanding” and being worried about your own touches that it detracts from the success of others. Nabers responded to what he believes was an implication that he’s a bad teammate.
“Y’all be trying [to] create a narrative on me soo bad, it’s actually crazy!! If you [don’t] like the way I play the game, keep the camera off me!! SIMPLE! But [Olsen] calling me a bad teammate when every team I’ve been on, there’s NOBODY I’ve played with has said dat bout me is crazy! My face the same way if I’m havin a good game, bad, winning or losing,” Nabers wrote. “If it’s a problem. 1. Keep the camera off of me. 2. Pray bout it! Simple.”
Nabers finished the game with five catches for 43 yards, which snapped a four-game streak with at least 111 receiving yards. He said in his postgame media session that he was frustrated with how the offense played at points in Philadelphia, but his frustration with Olsen and Davis might have been even greater.
The trade chatter regarding Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has lasted for two weeks. It will last at least two more days.
The current belief in league circles is that the Colts will take the best offer that’s on the table as the deadline approaches at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Sure, the Colts would like to get as much as they can, ideally landing the same package the Panthers got from the 49ers for running back Christian McCaffrey. But the Colts are likely to take what they can get, with the market for Taylor set by the competition among the teams that make an offer.
Regardless, the 2-7 Colts are ready to sell. At this point, they should be ready to move anyone — and everyone. They’re hoping to stockpile draft picks for the next General Manager. The more picks that compile, the more attractive the job becomes.
So whether it’s the teams that have been linked to Taylor (Giants, Vikings, Seahawks, Broncos, Packers) or someone unexpected (like the 49ers), a trade is expected to happen before the clock strikes 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 10.
The Giants have been linked to a pursuit of Colts running back Jonathan Taylor for the last few weeks and a report ahead of Sunday’s game against the Eagles suggested it’s unlikely that they’ll be trading for him before Tuesday afternoon’s deadline.
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that the Giants offered the Colts second- and fifth-round picks for Taylor and that they have since pulled that offer from the table because the Colts did not accept it. Giants head coach John Harbaugh was asked about that report after his team’s 19-11 win.
“I’d say we’re open for any kind of situation, but I will say this, things do change,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the Eagles. “Things change from day-to-day. So it’s not like one day you may do something and the next day something happens and it changes your position. I’m not saying that report’s not true. Those conversations are taking place and if something happens for any player, I can’t talk about any player because they’re with other teams right now, but we’re not ruling anything out, but I don’t see anything particularly imminent right now either. So we’ll see what happens.”
The Colts lost to the Cowboys on Sunday, so they are now 2-7 and have even more reason to prioritize future assets over this year’s roster. That could make them open to a return that was less appealing a couple of weeks ago.
On the other hand, the Giants are now 5-2-1 despite a mediocre running back group that produced 51 yards on 24 carries on Sunday. With a clear path to a division title and the chance to see what happens in the playoffs, they may be more open to going all in than when they last spoke to the Colts.
J.J. McCarthy’s time with the Vikings was interrupted by several injuries, so the quarterback was eager to make sure that he wasn’t knocked out of Sunday’s game against the Eagles.
McCarthy injured his hip at the end of a short run in the third quarter and missed the next offensive series while being evaluated in the locker room. McCarthy returned to the sideline after Jameis Winston threw a touchdown to give the Giants a 13-8 lead and could be seen jumping around while encouraging teammates.
After the 19-11 win, McCarthy said he was trying “to feel it out and make sure that I was ready to go full speed” and that went well enough for McCarthy to return for the fourth quarter. He led the Giants to a pair of field goals and had a key 11-yard run on one third down that showed he could handle the job.
“It’s feeling good,” McCarthy said of his hip, via a transcript from the Eagles. “Football is a physical game, and I can’t thank the training staff enough for helping me get back on the field as fast as possible. But yeah, it’s feeling pretty good.”
The Giants have a Thursday game against the Commanders and McCarthy said “we’re going to do our best to make sure we turn over as fast as possible and do whatever we can between now and then and make sure we’re as close to 100 percent” for that contest.
Sunday’s performance in Philadelphia wasn’t a work of art for the Giants, but it was more than good enough to end their long losing streak in the City of Brotherly Love.
Tight end Isaiah Likely’s touchdown catch in the third quarter gave the Giants their first lead since the first quarter and they expanded it to 19-11 before punting the ball back to the Eagles with 90 seconds left to play in the game. Joe Milton picked up first downs on completions to Hollywood Brown and Dallas Goedert, but rookie wideout Makai Lemon dropped a pass that would have moved them into Giants territory and running back Elijah Mitchell didn’t get out of bounds on a short catch on the next play.
Milton spiked the ball with six seconds left to play and the Eagles on their own 44-yard-line for one final heave. Milton famously uncorked a 70-yard throw at the Combine, but he never got a chance to throw the ball because he was sacked by defensive end Darius Alexander.
That was one of seven Giants sacks on the afternoon, including three from first-round pick Arvell Reese. It was Reese’s first road game against the Eagles and his 1-0 record in Philly is a big change from recent history. The Giants had lost 13 straight games in Philadelphia and the route to ending that skid featured some strange twists and turns.
Likely’s touchdown catch came on a throw from Jameis Winston, who replaced J.J. McCarthy after McCarthy hurt his hip in the third quarter. Winston played one full series and threw for 71 yards on his way to the touchdown, but McCarthy returned just before the end of the quarter and led the offense for the rest of the proceedings.
McCarthy was sacked five times, but was 12-of-19 for 127 yards when he had time to throw and he ran for 22 yards while evading pressure over the course of the afternoon. The Giants couldn’t find any other success on the ground and Sunday’s 243 yards of offense didn’t make a strong case for the Giants sitting out the trade deadline if they have a chance to acquire any kind of help for their backfield.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers had five catches for 43 yards, but dropped a pass in the end zone that would have iced the win and his body language was that of an unhappy player throughout the game. The win should make it easier to avoid it being a focal point for the team after the game, but Nabers will likely have to answer some questions about what was bugging him.
They’ll be back on the field Thursday night against the Commanders and another win would move them to 6-2-1 with a 3-0-1 record in the division. That would make them even heavier favorites to win an NFC East that is theirs for the taking.
The Eagles spent a lot of time in that position in recent years, but injuries have gutted the roster and Milton didn’t provide any significant upgrade on the offensive production that the team got with Tanner McKee at quarterback. The Eagles will have a bye week to determine which way they want to go in the future, but the 2-7 team should really only have eyes on 2027 at this point.
Jameis Winston put the Giants in the lead with a touchdown pass to tight end Isaiah Likely in the third quarter, but it looks like he won’t have a chance to try to finish out a win in Philadelphia.
After the Giants went up 13-8 and forced an Eagles punt, J.J. McCarthy returned to the game for the final play before the fourth quarter. He had been called questionable to return from a hip injury that he suffered on a hit by Eagles linebacker Zack Baun in the third quarter.
Baun left the game with a back injury on the same play. He has returned to the sideline, but has not come back into the game.
Winston was 6-of-8 for 71 yards while leading the go-ahead touchdown drive. His biggest play was a 27-yard connection with wide receiver Darnell Mooney.
McCarthy is 9-of-14 for 101 yards and he’s run three times for 11 yards.
The Giants and Eagles lost key players to injuries on the same play in the third quarter of Sunday’s game in Philadelphia.
Giants quarterback J.J. McCarthy went to the locker room after taking a hit from Eagles linebacker Zack Baun at the end of a short run. The Giants call him questionable to return due to a hip injury.
Baun also had to leave the game and the Eagles say he is questionable due to a back injury. Baun had two sacks in the first half of Sunday’s game.
Jameis Winston has replaced McCarthy for the Giants. They do not have a third quarterback available should anything happen to Winston before time expires in the fourth quarter.
Jameis Winston may be back in the saddle for the Giants.
Winston entered the game on the Giants’ first possession of the third quarter after McCarthy took a shot from Eagles linebacker Zack Baun. McCarthy went to the sideline and took a knee while in obvious pain after trying to throw a ball.
McCarthy then headed to the locker room for further evaluation and the Giants eventually punted the ball away. The team has not made an official announcement of the quarterback’s status.
McCarthy is 9-of-13 for 101 yards and he was sacked five times in the first half. The Eagles remain up 8-6 with over 10 minutes to play in the third quarter.
