The Giants' Cam Skattebo scores a touchdown in the first half, one of three he had in the game.
The Giants' Cam Skattebo scores a touchdown in the first half, one of three he had in the game.Seth Wenig/Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Cam Skattebo ran for three touchdowns as he and fellow rookie Jaxson Dart shined in prime time, and the New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-17, on Thursday night to hand the defending Super Bowl champions their second consecutive loss.
Skattebo bulldozed his way into the end zone from 4 yards out and twice from the 1-yard line. Dart scampered in untouched on his 20-yard TD run and connected with Wan’Dale Robinson on a 35-yard catch-and-run to the end zone.
The rookies who each fumbled on Sunday in a turnover-heavy loss at New Orleans responded the way coach Brian Daboll expected. Dart finished 17 of 25 for 195 yards passing and 13 carries for 58 yards after getting a concussion test following a big hit, while Skattebo rushed 19 times for a career-high 98 yards.
The Giants (2-4) also sacked Jalen Hurts three times and picked him off. Brian Burns got to the Eagles quarterback twice to tie for the NFL lead in sacks this season with seven.
Hurts overthrew a wide-open DeVonta Smith on a play in the third quarter that almost certainly would have been a touchdown if it was on the mark and in the fourth was intercepted by Cor’Dale Flott, who returned it 68 yards. It was Hurts’s first interception of the season and just his second, the other being in the Super Bowl, over his past 15 games.
The Eagles (4-2) ran the tush push four consecutive times in the second quarter, with Hurts scoring on the final try, and he had a shovel-pass TD to Dallas Goedert. But Hurts’s miscues combined with the defense faltering contributed to their first back-to-back losses since three in a row to end the 2023 regular season, then eliminate them from the playoffs.
That stretch from Dec. 31, 2023-Jan. 15, 2024 also included the only time New York beat Philadelphia over the NFC East rivals’ seven previous meetings. This was just the Giants’ fourth victory in their past 18 games against the Eagles.