The New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles squared off in a Monday Night Football game that was very legitimately a sidebar to the return of veteran quarterback Eli Manning, who was replacing the injured Daniel Jones.
Manning’s performance will be picked apart from every angle in the coming day, so for now, we’ll stick to the basics and provide our usual hot takes.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers who contributed to Monday’s loss.
Winners
Markus Golden – From the jump, Golden was playing at a different level on Monday night. Maybe it was the bright lights of prime-time, but he was a ball of energy and simply dominated the Eagles offensive line early on, tallying four QB hurries and one sack over his first nine pass rushing attempts. He fell off a bit later on, but that really speaks more about his hot start.
Leonard Williams – After making waves earlier in the week by saying he wanted to be paid at a tier below Aaron Donald, Williams had his best game as a Giant and perhaps his best game of the season. He collapsed the pocket, rushed the passer, stopped the run and snuffed out screens (the only one) with remarkable precision. He did have one awful roughing the passer penalty, but we’ll forgive him this one time.
Darius Slayton – Entering Week 14, Slayton had never caught a pass from Eli Manning. Ha! The rookie dominated the first half, hauling in five receptions for 154 yards and two touchdowns. However, Slayton faded completely in the second half (not entirely his fault).
Oshane Ximines – It was a big night for the rookie edge rusher, who came up with two sacks of Carson Wentz and added a quality stop in the second half for good measure. A game to build upon.
Others: Janoris Jenkins, DeAndre Baker, Dalvin Tomlinson
Losers
Will Hernandez – After an impressive rookie season, Hernandez has experienced a steady regression this season. His issues were once again highlighted on Monday as he was either late to reach his assignment or missed it entirely, leading to several Saquon Barkley runs being shut down early.
Alec Ogletree – There are moments where you look at Ogletree and think, “this guy still has it — he just needs to become more consistent.” Then there are other times you look and Ogletree and think, “get him out of there!” There was a lot more of the latter on Monday night.
Tight ends – Kaden Smith had two drops, Scott Simonson had a costly offside penalty and several run blocking assignments were missed between the two. Midway through the forth, Simonson collided with left tackle Nate Solder leading to a sack of Eli Manning. It was an all-around mess.
Wayne Gallman – After losing RB2 snaps to Buck Allen last week, Gallman found himself a healthy scratch on Monday night. Any way you slice it, that’s not good news for Gallman.
Others: Jon Halapio, Golden Tate, Nate Solder, Sam Beal
Mixed reviews
Saquon Barkley – With Manning back under center, Barkley was poised to see an increased role in Week 14 and to some degree, he did. It wasn’t his best performance, but it was a grind-it-out kind of game for the running back.
Eli Manning – Manning absolutely dominated the first half with two impressive touchdown passes to Darius Slayton and a few other dimes, but he completely vanished in the second half and that allowed the game to go into overtime.
Julian Love – Love was eaten up by much larger players at the line of scrimmage on Monday night, but there was something respectable about how hard he battled. He made several key tackles, but also missed one or two. It was a growing pains kind of night, but still a lot of positives for the rookie.
Others: Michael Thomas, Riley Dixon, Antoine Bethea
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