Giants coach Joe Judge is not keeping his opinions to himself when it comes to the Eagles tanking their game against Washington on Sunday night.
Eagles coach Doug Pederson pulled starting quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second half of a competitive game and replaced him with a quarterback who has barely played over the last four years.
The Eagles lost to Washington 20-14.
The Giants coach, whose team would have clinched a playoff berth with an Eagles win, says he isn’t criticizing the Eagles for losing he’s criticizing them for tanking.
“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’m the head coach of the New York Giants,” Judge said.
Judge didn’t let his own team off the hook:
I’ll let Philadelphia speak for themselves on that, in terms of how they approached the game. Look, real simply, I was in my office last night, watched our film of our game yesterday, and then I was actually watching our first Tampa game with the Philly-Washington game on in the background right there. So look, there’s been a lot made of that game internal or from the outside. Let me just be very clear on this: we had 16 opportunities this year. That’s it.
It’s our responsibility to take care of our opportunities and to perform better and to execute the situations when they’re on our plate. We don’t ever wanna leave our fate in the hands of anybody else. So we’re not gonna make an excuse as an organization, not now not never. We had our opportunities. We need to learn from the lessons we have from this year and carry them forward. That’s the experience you truly gain. But that’s really the most important thing right there. Our opportunities.
But clearly, Judge feels that Pederson didn’t do right by his players:
That being said, obviously, players have asked me throughout the day and I just can’t express that, one thing to keep in mind with this season is, we had a lot of people opt into this season, OK? We had a lot of people opt-in. Coaches, players. That includes family members as well. So to look at a group of grown men who I ask to give me effort on a day-in, day-out basis and to empty the tank, and then I can look them in the eye and assure them that I’m always gonna do everything I can to put them at a competitive advantage and play them in a position of strength — to me you don’t ever want to disrespect those players and their effort and disrespect the game.
The sacrifices that they made to come into work every day and test before coming; to sit in meetings spaced out; to wear masks; to have shields over those masks; to go through extensive protocols; to travel in unconventional ways; to get text messages at 6:30 in the morning telling them practice is gonna be canceled, we have to do a virtual day; to tell them please don’t have your family here for Thanksgiving; please avoid Christmas gatherings; we know it’s your wife’s birthday, let’s make sure we put that one off to the offseason.
There’s a number of sacrifices that have been made by all the players and coaches in this league. There’s a number of sacrifices that come along as well with 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’m the head coach of the New York Giants.
Despite those lengthy quotes, Judge wasn’t done taking shots at the Eagles. When referencing his goal of building a strong “foundation and culture” with the Giants. Judge highlighted recent quotes from Eagles center Travis Kelce.
“Sometimes they’re just kind of catchphrase words that everyone says yeah yeah I gotcha, foundation and culture,” Judge explained. “But those are really the most important things of any team. And you hear Kelce talk about it last night after the Eagles game, he had a sound byte talking about the culture of a team, and I think he was spot on with that.
“It’s truly all about the team.”
Hurts was 7-20 for 72 yards and a pick, at the time he got pulled from the game. So, the argument can be made that Pederson’s decision to pull Hurts was an attempt to try and win the game. Though, that explanation doesn’t exactly seem to wash with many.
Many Giants players expressed frustration on Twitter about Pederson’s decision to pull Hurts. Of course, why not? They had a chance to make the playoffs and it was minimalized by a coaching decision they had no control over. But regardless of whatever motivated Pederson to pull Hurts, there’s no getting around the fact that the Giants are a six-win team. A six-win team that scored a whopping total of 49 points over the last four games.
The fact that they were even in playoff contention was a joke.
Be better at football, and you won’t have to worry about trusting your playoff destiny to bad football teams
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.