Cowboys at Giants, Sunday night, for the NFC East title.
A Giants win makes this season of hair-pulling ups and downs all worthwhile.
A Giants loss would be a microcosm of the aforementioned hair-pulling Giants fans have been doing all year.
Just in the last two weeks, the Giants lost at home to the Redskins 23-10, looking like they didn't want to be on the field. They then silenced* Rex Ryan and the Jets, in a road game in the new Giants Stadium, 29-14.
(Technically not "silenced" because he kept talking after the game.)
Anyway, what to expect Sunday, besides the unexpected? Let's draw from what we learned over the first 15 games.
Going in the Giants' favor, is that this is a big game, and when they've come out fired up (or at least not completely flat), they've played well against good teams. Dallas is a good team.
Also going in the Giants' favor, they're playing Tony Romo in December. As much as the Giants have collapsed towards the end of the season the last 3 years, the Cowboys have done it just the same.
Going against the Giants however - it's at home. They're 3-4 at home this season, and the wins have come against Miami, Buffalo, and St. Louis. And two of the losses have come against Washington and Seattle. I'd almost rather they be on the road in a big game like this, especially in Dallas where they're 3-0 in that new stadium.
Also going against the Giants, this game has been flexed to prime time. This is more anectodal than factual, and like Peter King I give up on doing actual research that takes more than 2 minutes, but it seems the Giants save their worst performances for night games. (Though more so Monday nights than Sunday nights).
For the 2011 Giants, this was the only way the regular season could have ended all along: One game, with everything on the line. Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion it won't come easy.
2 comments:
I have no feeling on this game, other than relief that it's the Cowboys as opposed to the Eagles, who the Giants would almost certainly lose to in this scenario. But that is canceled out by my sense that the national consensus is: Giants' game to lose, which end up being games they always lose.
That's a good point Mike; "Experts picking the Giants to win" is surely something that belongs on the list of things going against the Giants Sunday.
Post a Comment