The Eagles ‘past and present players are talking about what their coach, Doug Pederson, did on Sunday night, playing on quarterback Jalen Hurts’ bench for Nate Sudfeld, jeopardizing his team’s chance of beating Washington. Giants players are talking about what their coach, Joe Judge, said in response to Pederson’s antics, which helped cost the Giants a playoff chance.
“I think it was an incredible message from coach Judge,” said linebacker Blake Martinez on Tuesday. “It’s something that he kind of instilled in us from day one. Always competing, always ready to play, always putting us in the right position to win games. I think it was an incredible way to do that. ”
The judge, without speaking of the Eagles or Pederson, said Monday: “Disrespect the effort that everyone has made to make this season a success for the National Football League, disrespect the game by going outside and not competing 60 minutes and doing everything you can help these players to win. We will never do that while I am the head coach of the New York Giants. ”
As he watched the Eagles fall to Washington 20-14 – eliminating the Giants in the postseason – cornerback James Bradberry said that something stood out for him more than Pederson’s defender change.
“The Eagles’ defense was playing really well,” said Bradberry. “I felt like it was the Eagles’ attack, they weren’t really getting it. Of course, they made that change at the end of the quarterback in the fourth quarter. But watching the whole game, I wasn’t really questioning the coaches ‘decisions and stuff, I was just impressed with the quality of the Eagles’ defense. The game was very tight, they weren’t playing for anything, and I’ve been in this situation before, so I know how things can be as a player. So, I was happy that they were playing hard. ”
Rookie security guard Xavier McKinney made the decisive interception in the final seconds of the season’s final victory over the Cowboys and then immediately heard an old tweet from Fox Sports agitator and Cowboy fan Skip Bayless.
“Yeah, man, I didn’t even get to see it when he said it the first time, and I saw it, someone just mentioned it to me, probably a few days ago,” McKinney said. “So, I had a guy in my bag a little bit, trying to play with him a little. ”
Bayless on April 24 posted his ideas on Twitter about the Giants catching McKinney with the 36th overall choice in the draft: “I’m glad the Giants caught Bama’s safety, Xavier McKinney, I didn’t want the Cowboys to catch it.”
McKinney not long after getting his first NFL interception to eliminate the Cowboys from the playoff contest tweeted back at Bayless: “Happy New Year late ” with a blinking emoji.
Judge said that as soon as he saw the interception and saw McKinney shooting, his first reaction was “stay in the damn finishing zone”. McKinney admitted that it was not his first thought.
“In college, I remember I took one and I was in the finishing zone, it was the end of the game and it was more or less the same scenario, and in college, I took the interception and got a knee, ” McKinney said. “Everyone was like, ‘Dude, you need to get this over with.’ So when I got this one, as soon as I got it, my first instinct was to go, because I was just trying to get away, to be honest, but I heard Logan [Ryan], I really heard Logan tell me to come down, and as soon as I heard that, I just slipped and was happy with the end result we got from it. ”