State of the Giants

Barry Bonds is going to jail, so kind of makes you feel like the Giants are going to jail. After all, once you get beyond the ego of Mr. Bonds, I think there's 24 other players there. Oh wait, wrong topic...

I'm talking the, as Chris Berman so eloquently puts it, NEW YORK FOOTBALL Giants.

Any Giants fan of the past few years can tell you, the second half of the year is always interesting. A race to finish in the Wild Card lately, or just barely squeeze out the division. The Giants are again threatening to blow it, but have somehow come up with key victories in one of Eli's great fourth quarters. Of course, I think it's safe to say Giants fans would like to see what he does there so often...in, I don't know, quarter one, two, or here's a wild one, three.

This coming week the Giants take on the Eagles, a team many would say isn't much different from the Giants. I'd say differently. Aside from records, I think there's a much more positive attitude in the locker room all season long in New York. I have to accredit that for some of their success, they want to win, they like to be the underdogs, and they embrace it. I can't say the same about the Eagles. They lack a passion, that maybe T.O. even provided them with. T.O. was and is a show-off, but perhaps he did get his team going in that way that the Eagles need again.

The biggest thing for the Giants, is to take a look at their upcoming schedule, versus that of their other Wild Card opponents, being the division was lost back in their second loss to the Cowboys this year.

Giants
at Eagles(5-7)
vs Washington(6-7)
at Buffalo(6-6)
vs New England(I don't want to talk about their record...j/k, 12-0)

With this schedule, the Giants SHOULD go 3-1. This is a should keep in mind, and the Giants should have beat the Cowboys, and the Vikings. Did they? No... But let's face it here. They are a better team than the Eagles, and a better team than Washington. Washington came up with a big win recently, but still is a long shot to make the playoffs. The other teams in WC contention are the Detroit Lions, with my FF QB, Kitna, and the Vikings also standing at a record of 6-6.

Their schedules look something like this

Vikings Lions
at San Fran vs Dallas
vs Chicago (MNF) at San Diego
vs Washington vs KC
at Denver at Green Bay

Looking at this schedule, I can't really see either team passing the Giants record wise if they're playing the way they should This could all change if the Giants lose to the Eagles this week, but I'm going to stick to my guts on this one, and see the Giants take it this Sunday. Their offense is not as good as it was at the beginning of the year, as it's been the case the past two years, but they've managed with injured running backs all year long, the loss of Ward shouldn't change their game plan too much. Droughns has done well when called upon, and I believe he'll keep that up.

Their defense has been good, and if that keeps up, they should at least take the next three weeks. If either team, the Lions or the Vikings, was going to catch New York, by schedule strength, I'd have to say it's going to be the Vikings. Remember, they tie the Giants, they did beat them, so that would be a blow to the Giants.

The Giants would have to lose two of their next four for the Vikings to at least tie at this point. As I said, I don't see that happening, and I see the Vikings at least falling once in their final four games.