We all know the situation for the Eagles on Sunday. If they go to North Jersey and come away with a win, they’ll clinch the NFC East and head to the playoffs.
The Giants know it too.
"We want to play spoiler," safety Antoine Bethea said, via SNY. "We want to send them home. We're not going to the playoffs, so we definitely want to get this dub and knock them out."
At 8-7, the Eagles are now in the driver’s seat of the NFC East in the final week of the regular season but the Giants (4-11) don’t really have much to play for. They have been eliminated for a while now and their head coach might be gone after Sunday’s game.
Sometimes the thought of keeping a division rival out of the playoffs is motivating.
But head coach Pat Shurmur doesn’t like the term “spoiler.”
“I wouldn’t call it that,” Shurmur said on a conference call with Philadelphia reporters earlier this week. “I think what’s important is we go out and battle and put a winning performance on the field. I think how it’s looked at for our fans, we want to go out and help them have an enjoyable day and watch their team win. That’s really what we’re looking for.
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“I know at this point in the season, there’s ramifications. The outcome of these games will determine a lot of things. In this case, really what we’re just trying to do is go out and put on the field a winning performance.”
While Bethea said the Giants want to play spoiler, many of his teammates are simply saying they want to win the game and finish on a high note.
Back in 2015, Shurmur was on the other side of this game. After Chip Kelly was fired, Shurmur was the Eagles interim head coach for the finale against the Giants. That was a battle between two 6-9 teams and the Eagles won 35-30. Shurmur explained that it’s not as hard to get players ready for one of these games because they’re prideful and they have a finite amount of time in the NFL.
Even if the Giants aren’t fully embracing the spoiler role, they are coming off two wins and have scored 77 points in the last two weeks. The Eagles can't take them lightly.