Eagles earn cathartic victory, run over Giants.

Well, that was fun while it lasted. For a game and change over the last couple of weeks it looked like the Giants might work their way back to relevance after a decade in the NFL wilderness. Thanks for playing, Midgets!

Not too much to say about this one, really: you all saw the same things I did. Let's hit a few of the talking points:

• Let's get the officiating stuff out of the way first. My guess is that Giants fans, who probably thought against all reason that their team had a chance today, will complain about three plays: the fumble on the Brotherly Shove that was short circuited by a forward progress call, the false start committed by Mailata that ended up becoming an offsides call against NY, and the OPI that killed the long TD in the fourth quarter. In reality, none of these calls changed the game at all. Philly dominated throughout (more on this in a moment). More specifically, the BS fumble play never should have happened (the officials inexplicably decided that Jalen was out of bounds short of the first down but in bounds for the purposes of the unnecessary roughness penalty, from my standpoint it should have been one or the other). The flipped penalty hurt New York but likely didn't take more than a point or two of expected points off the board. The OPI occurred one snap after the officials controversially reversed a Dart fumble that would have killed the drive. Sloppy officiating throughout and full of make up calls, but they largely balanced out.

• Philly dominate this game even more than the score indicated. The Eagles totally dominated the box score, earning their first victory in the yardage battle all season (428-246), but perhaps more impressively outgained the Giants in all four quarters. Philly outfirstdowned the Giants 23-13. New York managed their final score against Eagle backups late in the game.

• Welcome back, Eagles ground game! Last week it was the passing attack that came to life, this week the running game returned from the dead with 278 yards on just 30 carries (excluding kneeldowns). Both Barkley and Tank Bigsby hit the 100 yard mark. You got the sense that the Birds may have run for as many yards as they needed to.

• No AJ, no problem. We can probably credit a banged up Giants secondary more than anything for this, but the Eagles' passing offense once again had no problems. Jalen tossed four touchdowns with no picks, and it seemed that Devonta Smith was open on every play. Hopefully they can incorporate Brown back into the offense seamlessly, because there's no reason that should be out of reach.

• Pass rush comes to life, despite being shorthanded. Philly racked up five sacks of Jaxson Dart (it felt good to finally see that happen), and were within inches of several more. It looks like the unit was coached up for Dart's mobility this time, although there was still some meat left on the bone by the Birds. Nolan Smith's return will help that out.

• The bye comes at a good time. Philly is off next week in preparation for the biggest stretch of the schedule, a three game set against Green Bay, Detroit and Dallas. By then they should have Smith and Cam Jurgens back (not to mention Brown and Brandon Graham), and likely will have some activity at the trade deadline to fortify the defense. At 6-2, the Eagles are about where I thought they'd be at this point. Philly is still well poised to compete for the top seed in a wide open NFC.

FLY EAGLES FLY!