Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Carson Wentz had been struggling for the better part of the season and it looked like he was poised to have another poor game in Thursday night’s divisional clash against New York Giants. But Wentz stepped up when it mattered the most, orchestrating two late touchdown drives to give his team a critical 22-21 comeback win.
With the win against Giants, the Eagles improved to a 2-4-1 record and now sit on top of the NFC East.
Eagles scored on their opening drive, with Wentz leading the offense down the field before rushing for a touchdown from the 1-yard line. They struggled from that point on and found themselves trailing 11 points with five minutes left in the contest.
But Philadelphia wasn’t about to give up.
Wentz first connected with rookie John Hightower on a massive 59-yards play that had Eagles knocking on Giants’ endzone without wasting much time on the clock. The drive concluded with a TD score by Greg Ward Jr., leaving Philly hoping that they can still have a say in this game.
Eagles’ defense stepped up next, forcing the Giants to punt and leaving the offense two minutes to work with. And it turned out to be enough.
Wentz and co. surgically sliced through Giants’ defense with a well-balanced combination of run and passing plays before finding a way to the endzone thanks to a beautiful Boston Scott’s touchdown catch.
Giants’ attempted to execute a winning drive of their own but fell short after Jones fumbled the ball, and Philadelphia recovered it.
“I was pretty surprised we pulled it off,” said Wentz, who finished the night with 359 yards and three touchdowns. “Obviously, there are a lot of emotions there. It was kind of a big, exciting moment but a big kind of a sigh of relief because we know we left a lot of plays out there. But the way we battled and found a way at the end of the game was huge for us.”
