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#Joe Judge’s Philly homecoming could spark Giants ‘collective rising’

#Joe Judge’s Philly homecoming could spark Giants ‘collective rising’

The Native Son returns, and he returns on “Thursday Night Football” to his old stomping grounds with the hated rival team from up the Turnpike that he now calls his own, and he returns an Eagles fan no more.

He is Philly Special, the Pride of Doylestown, Pa., the former quarterback for Lansdale Catholic High School, a popular kid stoked with ambition who of course wolfed down cheesesteaks at Pat’s and Geno’s, who treasures the life and football lessons he learned from his beloved late high school coach Jim Algeo, who will wish his beloved late father could have seen him standing on the sidelines where other visiting head coaches have stood.

And it is undoubtedly Joe Judge’s good fortune that those hostile fans at the Linc who might view him now as a traitor will be limited to a maximum of 7,500.

A Philly Special night on the national stage for Judge — who returns with Frank Gifford’s former team and not Chuck Bednarik’s, returns with Bill Parcells’ former team and not Buddy Ryan’s, returns with Tom Coughlin’s former team and not Andy Reid’s.

And he returns with a 1-5 team that somehow, some way, still has the same designs the 1-4-1 Eagles do on an NFC Least — which no one has seemed interested in winning, including the imploding 2-4 Cowboys.

“Our division is winnable,” Logan Ryan said.

Joe Judge
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

Day by day, week by week, Judge is driven to show his Giants the way out of the relentless darkness that has enveloped them for too long into a brighter future, but all of a sudden the future can be now.

Gentlemen, restart your season.

Restart in a place you have not won since 2013, with Coughlin and Eli Manning.

The Giants didn’t win at the Linc with Ben McAdoo, didn’t win there with Pat Shurmur.

There isn’t a Giants player who doesn’t want to get a Philly Special win now — for themselves, and for Judge’s happy homecoming.

The Giants never have been, and undoubtedly never will be, confused with any Greatest Show on Turf. They were closer to Woody Hayes’ three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust squads against the Washington Football Team. It is a function of trying to figure out and establish an identity while Daniel Jones is enduring trial by error, learning Jason Garrett’s system behind an evolving offensive line with a dearth of playmakers.

But in the modern-day NFL, you aren’t going to win many games with your quarterback throwing 19 times, for 112 yards, even if he runs for 74 yards. You aren’t going to win many games with your offense scoring 13 points. Unless you have Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck rushing the other passer. Or the other passer is a backup. Carson Wentz is not Kyle Allen. The Eagles, as floundering as they are, are not the WFT.

For Judge and for Garrett, this is when you better play to win.

For Judge, it means eschewing the field goal on fourth-and-goal at the 2, it means not punting on fourth-and-2 from the Philadelphia 38.

“Anywhere the ball is on the field, they’re looking to get the thing into the end zone,” Judge said.

For Garrett, it means coordinating the kind of inspired game plan that he unleashed against the Cowboys. It doesn’t mean Air Garrett. It means don’t be afraid to push the envelope in big moments so you can lessen the burden on your defense.

Wentz has driven Eagles fans batty with his 11 turnovers, but even with a decimated supporting cast, playmakers and protectors both, the Eagles scored 29 points against the formidable Steelers and 28 against the formidable Ravens over the past two weeks. Wentz can break Philadelphia’s heart, but he can also break yours.

The Giants’ defense scored a touchdown in each of the past two games (Kyler Fackrell, Tae Crowder), but Jones shouldn’t count on a third. He needs to start playing at a higher level so that Judge can trust him on fourth-and-short as much as he trusts his defense. Jones averaged two TD passes a game last season. He’s averaging one TD pass every two games now.

For Joe Judge and Daniel Jones and the Giants, the season can start again on Thursday night. It is a chance for them to use that elusive first win as a launching pad.

“A collective rising,” Judge said.

When the Eagles score a touchdown, Judge will hear a muted version of “Fly, Eagles, Fly” that will sound oh-so familiar to him.

He will have family and friends in the stands, and they all fully understand that for their favorite son, it is now Fly, Giants, Fly.

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