New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles

8:30 PM EST, ESPN – Line: Philadelphia -3.5

Bitter rivals clash tonight in the City of Brotherly Love, as the Philadelphia Eagles host the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday Night Football.  Ironically, as terribly inconsistent as both of these teams have performed thus far, tonight’s meeting will propel the winner into at the very least a share of first place of what is commonly being referred to at the moment as the NFC Least.  Granted, that may sound like a gross overstatement, but through the first six weeks of the season the NFC East definitely has the looks of last year’s NFC South.  You mean that NFC South?  The one from 2014 where Carolina backed their way into a Division Title at a meager 7-8-1?  Yep, that’s the one, folks.  As we near the halfway point of the campaign, the NFC East has been mired in mediocrity; New York currently sits atop the division by the slimmest of margins, while Dallas, Philadelphia, and Washington are playing musical chairs behind them.  The Cowboys, the reigning Division Champions and preseason favorites, have been ravaged by injuries, while the Eagles, their purported chief competition, for a variety of reasons (which we’ll detail soon) have failed to live up to lofty expectations.  As for the Redskins, though they have improved a good bit (particularly on defense), well… they’re still the Redskins.  That of course brings us to the Giants (3-2, 1st in NFC East), who are in the midst of arguably the most unconvincing three-game winning streak ever.  But hey, let’s calm the pessimism for a moment here, for as cliché as it sounds, a win is still a win in the NFL, and if you ask Tom Coughlin, we’re sure he’ll tell you in detail just how hard those can be to come by.  Big Blue have gone 25-38 since hoisting their fourth Super Bowl Championship back in 2011, missing the postseason altogether in each of the last three campaigns, but have managed to keep their collective heads above water to take advantage of the chaos taking place in their division.  After dropping their first two outings in 2015, and becoming the first in NFL History to do so while holding double-digit leads in the Fourth Quarter of both contests, Coughlin’s charges have again proved their resilience in grinding out victories over the likes of Washington (32-21), Buffalo (24-10), and most recently San Francisco (30-27).  Last weekend against the Niners that streak nearly came to an end as the visitors gave Eli Manning and Co. everything they could handle, prompting the two-time Super Bowl MVP to engineer yet another Fourth Quarter Comeback, the twenty-sixth of his career.

Manning has thrived thus far, leading the Giants to their third consecutive victory, by way of his 26th career fourth quarter comeback.

Leading 20-13 midway through the third stanza, the Giants allowed the 49ers to catch fire, posting a pair of 80-yard drives to take a 27-23 lead with just 1:49 left to play in the game.  Starting from his own 18-yard line, No. 10 began the comeback with an 11-yard scramble, followed shortly by a huge 24-yard completion to Shane Vereen on Third-and-10 to drive the offense down to San Francisco’s 20-yard line.  After their final timeout, Manning launched an 8-yard toss to Odell Beckham, who despite aggravating his hamstring beforehand, drew a crucial Pass Interference Penalty to advance the ball to the 12-yard line.  Dropping back with twenty-six seconds remaining, and virtually all of his receiving weapons suffering from sort of malady, Eli found Tight End Larry Donnell in the back of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.  It was vintage Manning, as the twelfth-year veteran completed 41-of-54 passes (75.9%) for 441 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, piloting the offense to a massive 525 yards.  Making that victory all the more impressive was the fact that the longer it went, the more it seemed that the Giants lost yet another player.  Seriously folks, few teams have been perpetually hit by the injury bug the way this team has in recent years, but the Injury Report coming out of Coughlin’s Office is hardly something to joke about.  So let’s take a moment to run down the list, shall we?  Receivers Rueben Randle (hamstring) and the aforementioned Beckham (hamstring) are listed as Questionable, while Victor Cruz (calf) will have to put his season debut on hold for at least one more week, not to mention Cornerback Prince Amukamara, who will miss at least the next month with a partially torn Pectoral Muscle.  It doesn’t stop there, as Linebackers Devon Kennard (hamstring), Jonathan Casillas (calf), and Jon Beason (concussion) along with Defensive Linemen Robert Ayers (hamstring) and George Selvie (calf) all range from Doubtful to Questionable, with Tight End Jerome Cunningham also at question with an ailing knee.  That doesn’t even include the players that have already landed on Injured Reserve, which includes the likes of Defensive End and fireworks extraordinaire Jason Pierre-Paul (finger), Tight End Daniel Fells (ankle), Offensive Tackle Will Beatty (pectoral), and a trio of Safeties by the names of Nat Berhe (calf), Bennett Jackson (knee), and Mykkele Thompson (achilles).  If there was ever a “Damage Control” or “Crisis Manager” Award given to coaches, Coughlin would surely own a handful of them, but we think it’s high time that the veteran skipper make some improvements to his training staff, because the sheer volume of these injuries is really getting out of hand.  However, that hasn’t deterred the players that are still on the field from making plays; New York ranks ninth in the league in total offense (374.6) and seventh in scoring (26.4), while the passing attack has been formidable racking up 283.4 yards (8th Overall) on 7.0 net yards per attempt (7th Overall).  The Defense has also remained strong in the face of adversity, with former Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo returning to helm the league’s second-ranked rush defense (80.6).  But with all that said, the most notable difference between these Giants and those of the past three years has been their newfound ability to take care of the football.  Careless turnovers have often defined this team as much as hoisting Lombardi Trophies; in 2013 they committed a staggering 44 turnovers, the most in the NFL, and last year they gave the ball away 28 times, which was still seventh-most overall.  Second-year Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo has continued to guide them on their path, as his charges have turned the ball over just thrice thus far, second-fewest in the league.  Now if only he doubled as a medicine man…

Meanwhile, things haven’t been necessarily brotherly in Philadelphia, where the Eagles (2-3, 3rd in NFC East) have struggled mightily in the early goings of the 2015 campaign despite a torrent of change during the offseason.  At this point, it’s safe to say that the honeymoon is over for Chip Kelly, who in his third term on the sidelines in Philly has gone to great lengths to consolidate his power in the organization, while at the same time continuing to put his stamp on the roster.  Kelly controversially sent both Quarterback Nick Foles and Tailback LeSean McCoy packing in separate trades last Spring, then allowed leading receiver Jeremy Maclin to leave without much of a fight in Free Agency, followed by the exodus of Offensive Linemen Todd Herremans and Evan Mathis who were both released thereafter.  Many around the league wondered what exactly the unconventional coach was doing shedding so much talent, but after a pair of 10-6 seasons including a trip to the Playoffs in 2013, most were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt particularly given the ambitious spending spree he spearheaded in the Spring.  Acquiring Sam Bradford in the deal for Foles was a curious one, especially given that the former No. One Overall Pick looked ill-suited to run Kelly’s offense, but then again so did his predecessor before his breakout 2013 campaign.  However, signing both Tailback DeMarco Murray (5 years, $40 million) and Cornerback Byron Maxwell (6 years, $63 million) to lucrative deals helped to pacify those questioning the coach’s vision.  After all, Murray was fresh off of leading the league with 1,845 rushing yards, while Maxwell was a key cog in Seattle’s defense, which has sat atop the NFL for each of the past two years.  This was meant to be Chip Kelly’s team, the continued evolution of his roster into a machine that was supposed to be ahead of the learning curve.  So with all that said, where has it all gone wrong?

Bradford has failed to meet high expectations this season, despite producing career-highs in a number of passing categories.

Well, the answer to that question could take a while.  If we were to start with those aforementioned offseason acquisitions, it would be very easy to proclaim that neither Bradford, Murray, or Maxwell have done much of anything to warrant their hype, as all three have severely underperformed for a variety of reasons.  Let’s start off with Bradford, who as the Quarterback was expected to enjoy a career renaissance, much in the same vein as his predecessor Foles did two years ago, or in the same manner as his current backup Mark Sanchez did after supplanting the former in the starting lineup midway through last season.  After all, Bradford had the pedigree right?  A former Heisman and No. One Overall Pick, the 28-year old has exhibited flashes of the arm strength and accuracy that made so many scouts fall in love with him coming out of college.  Notice we said flashes, right?  Though it’s still far too early, the epithet on Bradford’s career will likely be one lamenting unfulfilled talent and potential; charged with leading some truly dreadful Rams teams from 2010 to 2014, he was only able to amass an 18-30-1 record in forty-nine starts, and those were just the games in which he was healthy enough to play.  Few young Quarterbacks have had to deal with such devastating injuries so early in a career like this guy has, missing thirty-one contests in that period, including nine in 2013 and all of 2014 with a pair of torn ACLs.  In those five years he managed to complete 58.6% of his passes for an average of 225.8 yards per game, tossing 59 touchdowns to 38 interceptions, all the while posting a Total QBR over 50.0 just once (52.33 in 2013).  And despite his purported arm strength, Bradford only averaged a scant 5.45 net yards per attempt, which was probably an indication of the Rams’ poor Offensive Line play (120 sacks).  Looked at as a product of his environment, Kelly gave him the proverbial second chance in Philadelphia, with better protection, more explosive talent, and a more diverse scheme set to unlock his long dormant potential.  On the surface he has succeeded, as Bradford has posted career bests in completion percentage (63.2%), yards per game (256.2), and net yards per attempt (6.24), though his Total QBR languishes at 32.0, the second-lowest figure of his career.  That’s because the vast majority of his production has occurred with the team trailing by so much that the offense has been forced to abandon the run altogether and throw their way back into games.  That was the case against Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington (all losses), as Kelly’s hyper-productive rushing attack could never get unglued long enough for him to take advantage of it.  Which brings us to Murray.  If you can count yourself as one of the poor unfortunate souls who drafted Murray with the hopes that he would lead you to fantasy greatness, then we’re sure that there are a number of expletives that have become synonymous with the Tailback.  A year after leading the league in rushing, this reigning Offensive Player of the Year has averaged a mere 32.5 yards on 2.7 yards per attempt.  Hell, he only had a total of eleven yards in the first two games alone.  At times he has looked completely lost in Kelly’s scheme, which sounds ridiculous considering that the Eagles ranked first (160.4) and ninth (124.5) in rushing in Kelly’s first two years at the helm, but that is the reality as the ground game is only churning out 93.2 yards (23rd Overall) on a modest 3.8 yards per carry (25th Overall).  Granted, they are coming off of a 186-yard performance against the Saints’ beleaguered defense, but is that really sustainable with New York’s second-ranked unit on tap?  And speaking of defense, perhaps if the Eagles could stop their opponent they would be able to stick the rushing attack more often.  A year after ranking fourth-worst in the league in total defense (375.6) and second-worst against the pass (264.9), Kelly’s charges have fared better in the rankings (22nd Overall, 25th against the Pass), but have actually yielded more total yards (376.4), including more through the air (279.6).  Maxwell for his troubles has far from fortified the Secondary, posting three pass breakups and a pair of forced fumbles.  We’re not financial analysts, but we’d say that altogether Kelly has seen a rather poor return on his initial investments.  But hey, first place is just one win away…