Last season, in Week 17, the New York Giants needed the Philadelphia Eagles to defeat the Washington Football Team to win the NFC East, and after three quarters, the Eagles trailed 17-14.
However, early in the fourth quarter, then Eagles head coach Doug Pederson replaced quarterback Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfeld, who was awful, and ultimately, Washington would defeat Philadelphia 20-14 to win the NFC East.
The following day, Giants head coach Joe Judge was livid and ripped the Eagles for what transpired in that game.
“There’s a number of sacrifices that have been made by all the players and coaches in this league,” Judge said back in January. “There’s a number of sacrifices that come along as well for the family members of the people connected to them. To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players win. We will never do that as long as I am the head coach of the New York Giants.”
Philadelphia(5-6), who have won three of their last four games, will travel to MetLife Stadium to battle the Giants(3-7) on Sunday for the first time since last season. New York(3-7) has lost two of its last three.
On Friday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who was not here last season, spoke about the situation from last year.
“That’s a good question, but that’s something I can’t speak on since I wasn’t here for it,” Sirianni said. “I wasn’t in the building for it. It’s a big rivalry that we are all blessed to be a part of. I am just honored that I can be a part of this rivalry. And it’s a rare thing in the NFL – I don’t want to say a rare thing, but it’s pretty cool to have the rivalries that we have in this division, so I am just honored to be a part of it.”
In reality, after Pederson’s firing, this whole issue is kind of nonexistent. Plus, the Giants are not very good this season and just fired their offensive coordinator, so they have more significant issues to worry about.
