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Much-maligned Fletcher, Williams rise to the occasion

The futures of cornerbacks Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams are uncertain. Fletcher will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Williams' salary- cap number balloons to $8.1 million next year.

Zach Ertz  catches a first-quarter touchdown pass with Giants’ Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie defending.(Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
Zach Ertz catches a first-quarter touchdown pass with Giants’ Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie defending.(Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)Read more

THE FUTURES of cornerbacks Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams are uncertain. Fletcher will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Williams' salary- cap number balloons to $8.1 million next year.

After their fourth-quarter struggles in last week's closer-than-it-should've been, 34-28 win over the Rams, a lot of Eagles fans wouldn't have minded if Chip Kelly put both of them on the next bus out of town.

They each gave up touchdowns and several other receptions in that ugly fourth quarter as the Rams rallied from a 34-7 deficit to get within six before Bill Davis' defense finally located the kill switch.

Which brings us to last night.

The popular thinking was that if a nobody like the Rams' Austin Davis and his receiving corps could give Fletcher and Williams fits, what was going to happen last night against Eli Manning and the Giants?

But that fear turned out to be unwarranted. Fletcher and Willliams and the rest of the secondary rebounded with solid performances against the Giants as the Eagles recorded their first shutout since 1996, a 27-0 laugher that sent them into the bye week with a 5-1 record and tied for first place in the NFC East.

Manning completed just 13 of 23 passes and was sacked six times.

"We did OK today," Fletcher said after the game. "There's always something you can do better. But those guys up front were coming. They were coming all night. When you have a pass rush like that, it makes our job easier on the back end."

After a rough start, Manning came into this nationally televised battle as hot as any quarterback in the league.

The Giants have a new offensive coordinator — Ben McAdoo — and a completely new offensive system — the West Coast. During the preseason and then in the Giants' first two regular-season games — double-digit losses to Detroit and Arizona — Eli looked lost. Threw four interceptions and had a 69.2 passer rating.

Then the light went on for him in Week 3. He completed 70.1 percent of his passes and threw eight touchdown passes and just one interception in consecutive wins over Houston, Washington and Atlanta.

McAdoo's offense basically is Green Bay East. Quick reads. Three-step drops and quick releases. Short throws. Nothing like the offense Manning ran under McAdoo's predecessor, Kevin Gilbride.

But the Eagles played press coverage against the Giants' receivers and made it difficult for Manning to get the ball out before the pass rush got to him.

"We went into the game thinking they would be trying to get the ball out fast," Fletcher said. "And the pass rush was getting there no matter what was happening."

Williams and Fletcher took a lot of heat last week for their play in the Rams game, which had been preceded by less than stellar play in the first four games. Going into last night's game, the Eagles had allowed a league-high 13 touchdown passes.

"We all worked together today and did a great job working as a cohesive unit, and communicating, as well as in the pass rush," Williams said.

"Our front seven did a tremendous job of getting after the quarterback and attacking the edges and making the pocket muddy and condensing the lanes for us in the secondary. We did a tremendous job just working together as a defense collectively. We were able to get the goose egg against a great offense and a great quarterback."

Fletcher and Williams did an outstanding job on the outside of neutralizing Giants wide receivers Victor Cruz, Odell Beckham and Rueben Randle. Randle had five catches for just 58 yards. Beckham had two for 28 yards. And Cruz had just two for 16 yards before injuring his knee in the third quarter and leaving the game.

"The coverage was pretty special tonight," said linebacker Connor Barwin, who had three of the Eagles' eight sacks.

Manning had to hold on to the ball longer than he wanted, and that played right into the hands of Barwin and the rest of the pass rush.

The Eagles had given up 15 passes of 20 yards or more in the previous three games, including eight of 30 yards or more. But in the first three quarters last night, Manning had just one 20-yard completion, and that was to tight end Daniel Fells.

Williams shrugged off the criticism he and Fletcher have received.

"We can only control what we can control," he said. "Guys at the facility understand how we work. We work tremendously hard. We put in a lot of work, a lot of hours. For people to criticize us, we don't really care. Praise and blame, all the same. All we want to do is get better each and every week. This is a great way to kick off the bye week the right way."

Defensive coordinator Bill Davis was extremely pleased with his unit's entire performance.

"Shutouts are so hard to come by in this league," he said. "It's a team shutout."

Davis praised both the pass rush and the coverage.

"It was great coverage," he said. "We were up on guys. We were disguising some coverages. We knew that with a guy like Eli, you gotta show one thing and give him another. We just moved it around on him."