Joe Judge suggests Eagles disrespected league by benching Hurts

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge didn't like what he saw from the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of their 20-14 loss to the Washington Football Team on Sunday night.

Not only did the Eagles' loss cost the Giants a playoff spot, but Judge suggested Philadelphia's late-game decisions disrespected the game of football.

Trailing 17-14 late in the third quarter, the Eagles opted not to kick a chip-shot field goal to tie the game and wound up turning the ball over on downs. Then, early in the fourth quarter, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson benched quarterback Jalen Hurts in favor of third-stringer Nate Sudfeld. Sudfeld threw an interception and lost a fumble on the next two drives.

"To me, you don't ever want to disrespect those players and their effort and disrespect the game," Judge said. "The sacrifices that they made to come into work every day and test before coming in, to sit in meetings spaced out, to wear a mask, to have shields over those masks ... To tell them, 'Please don't have your family over for Thanksgiving. Please avoid Christmas gatherings. We know it's your wife's birthday, let's make sure we put that one off to the offseason.' There are a number of sacrifices that are made by all the players and coaches in this league. There are a number of sacrifices that come along as well with their family members and the people connected to them.

"To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players win, we will never do that as long as I'm the head coach of the New York Giants."

Judge also took responsibility for the Giants falling short of the postseason with a 6-10 record.

"Let me be very clear on this, we had 16 opportunities this year. That's it. We don't ever want to leave our fate in the hands of anyone else," he said, per Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. "We're not going to make excuses. Not now, not ever. We had our opportunities."