Giants have an effort problem, Football Team has a PR problem, and the NFC East is a joke

Save for the Cowboys, who are on bye in Week 7, and are the only team in the division with a winning record.

Things have not gotten better for the NFC East through Week 6, except for the Dallas Cowboys who are heading into a bye week after an overtime win against the Patriots. For the rest of the division, you’ve got the continuing-to-struggle Eagles, the Giants who have started to elicit boos from their own fans, and the Football Team who can’t figure things out on or off the field.

Here’s a little bit about what happened around the NFC East in Week 6 and what’s in store for Week 7. (RELATED CONTENT: Check out the newest episode of The NFC East Mixtape, which lives on both the Bleeding Green Nation and Blogging The Boys podcast feeds.)

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys are coming off a big overtime win against the Patriots in Week 6, a game that really had a little bit of everything, including a big reminder that they have offensive weapons like CeeDee Lamb and Ezekiel Elliott, and cornerback Trevon Diggs who has as many interceptions this season as the Eagles have rushing touchdowns, seven.

The team is 5-1 heading into their Week 7 bye, and have the NFC East easily in the bag at this point. They’re really the only team in the division with momentum and potential — and they’re the only team in the division with an actual winning record. Sure, anything could happen, but what are the odds? (Not good.)

New York Giants

The Giants were absolutely thrashed by the Rams in Week 6, and to make matters worse, head coach Joe Judge said after the game that the effort of some players didn’t meet his expectations. He wouldn’t point out who he was referring to, but said that players’ effort in practice throughout the week will go a long way in determining playing time next week, according to Patricia Traina of SI.com.

“I’d just make the point that we’re going to play the most productive players, the players that play the right way, the players that play the way we want to play effort-wise and competitive-wise for 60 minutes, the players that are the most productive. Those will be the guys you’ll see on the field.”

It’s never good when players aren’t giving it their all, and some would argue that it all starts with the head coach and trickles down to the players. Not suggesting that Judge lacks effort, but his emphasis on making players run sprints, or how his anger gets the best of him at times, could certainly put a bad taste in the mouth of some men in the Giants’ locker room.

To make matters worse, the team, which is now 1-5, has started playing to a chorus of boos from fans at their home stadium. Some veterans may understand why, and Judge may defend the reactions, but it’s also something that will surely end up making an impact — it’s just too early to determine if it will encourage the team to shape up, or ship out.

Some players were asked about the fans audible frustrations after the game, and Adoree Jackson wasn’t surprised given their play, according to Emily Iannaconi of Big Blue View.

“Obviously, you don’t want to get booed, especially not at home,” Jackson said. “But to eliminate that, get back in the lab and just keep grinding until things turn out the way you want to. You don’t really want to get booed, but at the end of the day, we aren’t doing anything to not get booed, so we’ve just got to change that.”

The Giants host the Panthers in Week 7, so if they’re looking for a different home environment, they’ll need to turn things around pretty quickly.

Washington Football Team

Unsurprisingly, most of the drama coming out of Washington lately has been for the organizations issues and involvement off-the-field, and as emails from the NFL’s investigation continue to leak, there’s no telling what might come next. In what seemed to be a thinly veiled PR move, the team decided to retire legend Sean Taylor’s No. 21 in Week 6.

James Dator of SB Nation summed it up pretty well, writing:

“Team officials swore there wasn’t an ulterior motive and the rollout was a messaging problem. Officials said the event had really been planned for months, and the perception that this was a quick turnaround to serve as PR cover wasn’t accurate. Now, after the team’s “ceremony” on Sunday (which I purposefully put in quotes to underscore how lackluster it was), we can say with certainty that if the team had indeed been planning this for months, then whoever oversaw this should never be asked to plan anything again.”

What’s worse for the Washington franchise is that they continue to fail to gain momentum on the field, and are now 2-4 heading into Week 7. Sure, the team wasn’t prepared heading into the season to have Taylor Heinicke running the offense, but he’s their quarterback and they haven’t figured out a way to help him succeed.

As Jamual Forrest of Hogs Haven pointed out, the offense is struggling:

“Scott Turner’s offense has not been good for the majority of games this year. His unit currently ranks 24th in yards and 21st in points. Furthermore, they are coming off of a week in which they produced just 276 yards and 13 points against the Kansas City Chiefs, who had boasted the 32nd ranked defense heading into the Week 6 matchup (now ranked 28th).”

Forrest breaks down some of the differences in the defenses Washington has faced through the first six games of the year, and why Heinicke has been able to have success against simpler styles, but not against more complex or talented teams.

Things aren’t going to get any easier for the Football Team in Week 7 when they have to face a 5-1 Green Bay Packers team that has rolled over opponents in recent weeks.