Eagles players past and present are voicing what their head coach, Doug Pederson, did on Sunday night, putting quarterback Jalen Hurts on the bench for Nate Sudfeld, jeopardizing his team’s chance of beating Washington. Giants players are ringing out what their head coach, Joe Judge, said in response to Pederson’s antics, which helped give the Giants a shot at the playoffs.
“I think it’s a great message from Coach Judge,” linebacker Blake Martinez said on Tuesday. “It’s something he’s taught us since day 1. Always fighting, always ready to play, always putting us in the right position to win games. I think it was just a great way to go about it. ”
Judge, without naming the Eagles of Pederson, said on Monday, “ To disrespect the effort that everyone has put into making this season a success for the National Football League, disrespecting the game by going out and 60 minutes of not fighting and doing everything. you can help those players win. We never will as long as I’m the head coach of the New York Giants. ”
While watching the Eagles drop to Washington 20-14 – eliminating the Giants from the postseason – corner-back James Bradberry said something struck him more than Pederson’s quarterback switcheroo.
“The Eagles defense played very well,” said Bradberry. “I felt like the Eagles attack, they didn’t really get it going. Of course they made that late quarterback change in the fourth quarter. But when I watched the whole game, I didn’t really question the coaches’ decisions and decisions. so i was just impressed with how well the Eagles defense played. The game was very close, they weren’t playing for anything, and i’ve been in that situation before so i know what it can be like as a player. was happy they played hard. ”
Rookie safety Xavier McKinney made the game-clinching interception in the closing seconds of the season-ending victory over the Cowboys, then immediately picked up an old tweet from Fox Sports rebels and Cowboys fan Skip Bayless.
“Yeah, man, I didn’t even see it when he first said it, and I saw it, someone just said it to me, probably a few days ago,” McKinney said. “So I had a little bit in my bag and tried to play with it a little bit.”
Bayless took to Twitter on April 24 to post his thoughts on the Giants taking McKinney with the 36th overall pick in the draft: “Glad the Giants took the Bama safety, Xavier McKinney, I didn’t want the Cowboys taking. ”
McKinney not long after getting his first NFL interception to eliminate the Cowboys from the playoff battle tweeted back on Bayless: “Happy Late New Year’s Skip” with a winking emoji.
Judge said as soon as he saw the interception and saw McKinney darting around, his first reaction was ‘stay in the damn end zone’. McKinney admitted this was not his first thought.
“In college I remember catching one and I was in the end zone, it was the end of the game, and it was about the same scenario, and in college I caught the interception and took a knee,” McKinney said. “Everyone was like, ‘Man, you have to run out.’ So when I got this one my first instinct as soon as I caught it was just to go because I was just trying to distance myself, to be honest, but I heard Logan [Ryan], I actually heard Logan tell me to sit down, and as soon as I heard that, I just slipped away and was happy with the end result we got with that. ”