Giants fall to Eagles for franchise-record 14th loss, lock in No. 3 pick in 2025 NFL Draft
Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis (90) tackles Giants running back Devin Singletary (26) after a catch during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
PHILADELPHIA — The Giants’ sputtering reached its inevitable conclusion Sunday. Another loss on top of far too many.
The Eagles rested most of their starters, but even that couldn’t stop the Giants from looking inept and woefully outmanned in their 20-13 loss at Lincoln Financial Field.
At 3-14, the Giants have their most losses in their 100-season history. They went winless (0-6) in division play for the first time.
Instead of celebrating a century of success, the Giants are a culmination of bad decisions. Now the clock has started on whether coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen will return next season.
“I talk to ownership all the time, so I’m sure we’ll have another meeting here,” Daboll said without adding whether he’s been given any indication about his future. “But I’m in constant communication with those guys.”
For all their troubles — including a franchise-record 10-game losing streak — the Giants weren’t even properly rewarded for being bad. Thanks to last week’s win over the Colts, they had to settle for the No. 3 pick in this spring’s NFL Draft, which might make it hard to draft a quarterback, presumably Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward.
That’s just one of the issues awaiting this offseason. Sunday was a reminder of how limited the Giants were offensively while playing four quarterbacks this season.
Drew Lock threw for only 138 yards on 22-for-29 passing — and 45 of those yards came on a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Malik Nabers, who took a hard hit and stumbled down the right sideline but kept his balance to cross the pylon before falling.
Nabers had five catches for 64 yards and finished his rookie season with 109 receptions for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns. He set a franchise single-season record for receptions, passing Steve Smith’s 107 in 2009.
“I thought I had it earlier in the game,’’ he said. “That’s why I was trying to get the ball. But they told me afterward I still have to have two more catches. So yeah, I was aware of it.”
He temporarily had the NFL rookie record for receptions, one ahead of Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, but Bowers passed him with his second catch later Sunday afternoon.
What did that record mean to him? “It means a lot,’’ he said. “I was keeping track. I’ve been keeping track all year. I had a few texts with Brock and I told him he got there before me. I applaud him for that. Brock, he was with me for the training process, the rookie process, the pre-draft, so kudos to him.’’
The Eagles, meanwhile, sat quarterback Jalen Hurts, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and running back Saquon Barkley, among others, because they already had locked up the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed. It meant Barkley wouldn’t torture his former team after an NFL-best 2,005 rushing yards, more than the Giants’ entire total (1,783). Barkley rushed for 176 yards on 17 carries against the Giants earlier in the season.
Eagles third-string quarterback Tanner McKee made the most of his first NFL start. He was 3-for-3 on his first drive, including a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ainias Smith. He added a 7-yard TD pass to E.J. Jenkins on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 17-3 lead.
McKee finished 27-for-41 for 269 yards. Jahan Dotson had seven catches for 94 yards.
Nabers’ touchdown came on the series after Jenkins’ TD, and the Giants’ defense responded with a three-and-out, thanks to a third-down sack by Kayvon Thibodeaux and Elijah Garcia.
After a 26-yard punt return by Ihmir Smith-Marsette, the Giants started at the Eagles’ 38-yard line. But two false-start penalties pushed them back and they had to settle for a 53-yard field goal by Graham Gano.
The Eagles then ran off a 6-minute, 34-second drive, aided by two Giants penalties. On fourth-and-3 with 2:00 left, linebacker Boogie Basham jumped offsides, giving the Eagles a first down. Three plays later, on third-and-11, Thibodeaux committed a roughing-the-passer penalty to extend the drive.
Even after Jake Elliott’s 32-yard field goal, the Giants had one last chance with 47 seconds left, but Lock’s pass was intercepted by Sydney Brown and the season was over.
“Kinda just getting in your way,” said Lock who had six touchdown passes and five interceptions in five starts. “Feel like you should be playing better, like we should be up. Feel like we should be going sooner. Later, it kind of started rolling a little bit for us, and by then it was just too late.”
The Giants finished with an NFL-worst 15 touchdown passes and 16.1 points per game, second-worst in the league.
Now it’s up to president John Mara and chairman Steve Tisch to decide if anybody should be fired after the Giants lost 11 of their last 12 games. But the players who’ll return know it’s on them, too, to fix a terrible season that few of them envisioned in August during training camp.
“I never, ever want to be a part of a season like that again,” tackle Jermaine Eluemenor said. “Or a game like this again where there’s nothing really to play for and you have to find external motivation to play through a game like that.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
