Day off Sunday treats G-men well

If you had told me that during the Giants’ bye week, their situation, and in particular, their playoff outlook would improve, almost drastically, I would have laughed.  But here we sit on Monday, the day after losses by Atlanta, Dallas and Philly have put the Giants right back in the thick of things. 

Not only are the Giants now tied for second with the Eagles in the NFC East at 5-4, but both teams are just a game behind the Cowboys at 6-3, plus the Giants, despite having a loss to Philly, did beat Dallas head to head in Dallas in Week 2.

And now they are also tied with the Falcons, Eagles and Packers for the #5 playoff seed.  They all have the Panthers, Niners and Bears nipping at their heels with 4-5 records, but it’s safe to say that of all these teams, the Giants arguably control their own destiny the most.  Thats because they go head to head with Atlanta on Sunday at home and also have home games remaining against Dallas, Philly and Carolina.  So long as they win those games or most of them, everything else should take care of itself.  It’s not even crazy to think the G-men still have a shot at the division title.

Yeah, I know.  They haven’t been playing all that well.  They did, however, play a very good Chargers team tough last Sunday and only self-destructed defensively in the last minute.  There were lots of improvements on offense and defense for the most part and the Giants limited turnovers, something they hadn’t done the previous three games. 

Now they have a bye week and felt refreshed getting back to practice.  In conference calls today, Justin Tuck said he went hunting for deer, and Eli Manning went to Ole Miss to watch the Rebels beat his brother’s alma mater Tennessee, and then watched all the games at home yesterday as a fan, something these guys don’t get to do too often.

So let’s start talking Giants’ football again, and let’s be thankful that the games fell the way they did on Sunday.  It surely could have been a lot worse.

Tags: Bears, Chargers, Cowboys, Eagles, Eli Manning, Falcons, Giants, Justin Tuck, NFC East, NFC playoff picture, Niners, Ole Miss Rebels, Packers, Panthers, Peyton Manning, Tennessee