Your Guide to This Week’s Eagles-Giants Playoff Game

A.J. Brown of the Philadelphia Eagles runs with the ball against Cor’Dale Flott and Jason Pinnock of the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on January 8, 2023. / Photography by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Here we freaking go. The Eagles are coming off their bye week and days away from their divisional-round playoff game against the NFC East rival New York Giants. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I, for one, am not ready to get off. I’m ready for the city — even our bread, fine — to be bathed in green-hued joy. I’m ready for thousands of fans to descend upon Broad Street. And whether you’re ready or not, this is your life now, too, if you live in Philly. So consider this your cheat sheet. We’ll tell you where to watch, how to watch, and everything you need to catch up on what’s been happening, so you can talk Birds with your fellow fans at the bar without embarrassing yourself.

For now, I’m gonna go buy another hoodie and hype myself up with Jason Kelce’s 2018 Super Bowl parade speech on repeat.

Schedule

Let’s get this simple (and fate-tempting) part out of the way: the playoff schedule. Since the Eagles have the best record in the league, any playoff game involving them will be played at home leading up to the Super Bowl (which will be in Arizona, but let’s not worry about that yet).

The Eagles play the Giants at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, January 21st, at Lincoln Financial Field. If they lose, it’s over, and we all cry a million tears.

But they’re favored to win! So if they do that, they’ll play the NFC Championship — also at the Linc — on Sunday, January 29th, at 3 p.m. They’ll be playing either the Cowboys (boo!) or the 49ers. The latter team is slightly favored, hopefully sparing us from another game against Dallas.

Let’s really jinx the hell out of things here and tell you that after that, the winners take a week off before the Super Bowl, which is on Sunday, February 12th, at 6:30 p.m. in Glendale. The road to victory goes through Philly, regardless.

Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles walks to the field from the tunnel prior to the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lincoln Financial Field on November 27, 2022. / Photograph by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Where and How to Watch

In person

If you don’t already have tickets or lots of money, your chances aren’t great. Whenever a Philly team makes the playoffs (or Taylor Swift goes on tour), I inevitably see social media posts asking for tips or “deals” on how to get tickets. Let’s assume efficient markets here.

Right now, you can expect to spend $300 to $400 for standing-room-only and 200-level tickets. You’re not gonna find a deal, so please, don’t answer DMs, pay cash, or hang around shadowy alleys waiting for a cheap ticket. Go with resellers — sites like NFL Ticket Exchange and StubHub are your best bets, since they’re secure and verified — and if you do get a ticket, keep to yourself. (For the love of God, don’t post a picture online. Not only will your friends hate you, but someone can use that barcode to steal your tickets.)

The subway takes you right there — buy a Key Card, ride the Broad Street Line southbound to the end, follow all the Hurts jerseys up the stairs, and you can’t go wrong. If you’re coming from the ’burbs or Jersey, Regional Rail and PATCO connect to the BSL underground, and you’ll have lots of company in folks who likewise know better than to drive. (Of course, you can drive to the game, but keep in mind that if you do, you’ll also have to drive home.)

TV/Streaming

All games will be broadcast on Fox, so if you have cable or a digital antenna, you’re set. As for streaming, you can subscribe to NFL+ (they have a deal where you can stream the playoffs and Super Bowl for $12.99) or watch via Sling or Fubo TV.

If you want to watch the game somewhere other than your couch, we’ve got some bar recommendations here, though they’ll probably be packed all day, and let’s be honest, you’d have a harder time finding a bar that’s not showing the Eagles on game day.

How Did We Get Here?

The Eagles were supposed to be good, but no one expected them to be this good. They were Super Bowl champions five years ago, but this team bears little resemblance to that team, which captured the city’s heart. Head coach Doug Pederson was fired in January 2021, less than three years after leading the team to its lone Super Bowl title. Then-quarterback and erstwhile face of the franchise Carson Wentz was gone a month later, unceremoniously shipped out of town following a disastrous season that ended with him benched in favor of rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts. In fact, only two offensive starters — both linemen — and two defensive starters remain from those Super Bowl champs.

Hurts retained his starting quarterback position in 2021 but wasn’t given a long leash. The Eagles had amassed a number of early draft picks that could have been packaged for a quarterback. But Hurts held the team together, going 9-8 and reaching the playoffs. Rather than pulling the trigger on a deal for a QB, the Eagles decided to give Hurts another season in 2022. They gave him another big weapon, too — trading away draft picks for wide receiver A.J. Brown, who has proven crucial to the Eagles’ offensive success and to Hurts’s MVP campaign.

So the Eagles were favored to win their first game of the 2022 season. And they did. They were favored to win their second game, and they won that, too. Then their third, and their fourth; that kept happening until suddenly they were 8-0, the only undefeated team in the league. They lost their ninth game to the Commanders, despite being heavy favorites, but they bounced back and won five more games. These weren’t small wins, either: The Eagles started December beating the Colts, 35-10, at home, and obliterated the Giants on the road, 48-22.

The NFL allows one team in each conference to skip the first round and then have the opportunity to win two home games to earn a spot in the Super Bowl. But in the Eagles’ 13th win, Hurts injured his shoulder. At 13-1, the team just needed one more win in the final three games to secure a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs. But with backup quarterback Gardner Minshew in charge of the offense, the Eagles lost the first two of those games.

The Eagles needed a win in their final game of the season to earn that week off. Hurts was healthy enough to play but not healthy enough to let loose. The Eagles got lucky; since the Giants had already secured a playoff spot but had no chance of improving their matchup, they rested most of their best players. Hurts avoided being in a position for the Giants to re-injure his shoulder, and the Giants took advantage of that. Granted, the Eagles looked like a shell of the team that had taken the league by storm earlier in the season, but they did enough to win, 22-16. Hurts was clearly still injured, and head coach Nick Sirianni said as much: “We didn’t feel like there was more risk, but I know he was hurting. He was hurting bad.”

Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles scrambles against the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on January 8, 2023. / Photograph by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

The Eagles’ Chances vs. the Giants

The logical follow-up to “How did we get here?” is “Where exactly are we?,” and that’s not clear. Hurts was either holding back or limited. If he was holding back, he may now be in a position to crush the Giants the way he did earlier in the season, when the Eagles trounced them 48-22. Or Hurts was cautious because it was the only way to stay healthy enough to reach the playoffs. The Giants played without starting quarterback Daniel Jones and many other key starters when the Eagles sneaked past them last week. If Hurts was actually just limited — and still is come Saturday night — the Giants may be able to keep him in check the way they did last week while also scoring more themselves. Only time will tell.

For what it’s worth, the Eagles are 7.5-point favorites. And the Eagles are the NFC’s first-seed team, while the Giants are sixth-seed. The odds are in our favor.

And the bye week provided some much-needed recovery time for some very important players. Not only is Hurts back; offensive lineman Lane Johnson is also expected to return.

Meanwhile, the Giants weren’t even expected to make the playoffs. But they defied expectations, and they did so in the shockingly hard NFC East. They came into the season with a new coach (Brian Daboll) and new GM (Joe Schoen), but the key was the improvement that quarterback Jones showed in his fourth year — plus, he stayed healthy all season. Likewise, Saquon Barkley finally became an elite running back in his fifth season. You’ll notice, however, that the Giants’ season kind of fell apart in the back half. They started out 6-1 and then went 3-6-1. True, their schedule got harder, but their defense gave up more points while their offense remained average.

The Eagles’ defense isn’t letting up: This season, they notched a team-record 70 sacks, the most in the NFL and just two short of the single-season NFL record. They also have the distinction of allowing the fewest total passing yards of any defense in the league.

Another fun fact that may not be dispositive but is worth noting (“It’s the whole team!”): Boston Scott is a certified Giants-slayer. He’s had 17 career touchdowns, and 10 of them have been against the Giants. Do with that information what you want, which is probably just to make more memes, which Scott himself has seen and enjoyed.

Micah McFadden of the New York Giants attempts to tackle Boston Scott during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on January 08, 2023. / Photograph by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

“Nothin’ But Batmans” and More Fun Stuff

Speaking of Boston Scott memes, this team has been a delight both on and off the field.

Let’s start with our beloved meme generator, Mr. Jason Kelce. This is a man who continues to not take himself seriously while taking his passions really, really seriously. He didn’t just drop a Christmas album with teammates  Johnson and Jordan Mailata; he and his teammates sounded way better than they had any right or need to (partly thanks to a West Philly vocal coach), and the album sold out three times over, raising more than $250,000 for the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center. Speaking of raising money for good causes, Kelce also started his own nonprofit to help kids in Philly schools. (The t-shirts benefiting the nonprofit are also Philly-made, instant sellouts, and way better than they need to be.) And if that wasn’t enough for us, he also hosts a must-listen podcast with younger brother Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Philadelphia Eagles mascot Swoop wears a Batman costume during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Eagles on October 30, 2022, at Lincoln Financial Field. / Photograph by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.

Meanwhile, the wide receivers are all Batman. (Batmans? Batmen?) You may notice fans wearing masks of the Dark Knight and wonder what that’s all about. Well, as defensive back Darius Slay explains, A.J. Brown is “Swole Batman,” DeVonta Smith is “Skinny Batman,” and Quez Watkins is “Fast Batman.” There are “no Robins” here: It’s “nothin’ but Batmans.” Capes are also involved. It’s everything.

SWOLE BATMAN.@1kalwaysopen_ | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/8O2DLX69yO

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 25, 2022

And while Kelce told his brother on his podcast, “I don’t like to play dress-up; I like to play football,” he got in on the Batman action on Halloween. (While Kelce dubbed himself “Fat Batman,” Darius Slay countered that if anything, Kelce is “Sexy Batman.” Where’s the lie?)

Speaking of Halloween, while Kelce was dressing like a superhero, Johnson was dressing like Kelce.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1586715848651276288

Could we love this team any more? Why, yes, because we haven’t gotten to Hurts’s “It’s a Philly Thing” statement, which has since turned into the team’s 2023 rallying cry and playoff sweatshirt.

“It’s a swagger. It’s a kind of an air of its own. You know, when you talk about the passion in this city, the support in this city, the love for the Philadelphia Eagles in this city, it’s truly a Philly thing. … It’s a special city. It’s a special time. … We’re gonna show up on Saturday.”