Giants Looking Like Underdog

Judging by the way the media is covering this game and the way that commenters are commenting on the blog, you would think the Giants were +17 against the Eagles this weekend.

The great thing about the NFL is the one and done playoff format, like no other major professional sport. It gives teams reasons to believe and a chance to play just 60 minutes of football to advance rather than winning three of five or four of seven.

And because of this unique format, the NFL playoffs are chaotic, and unpredictable. And it is for this reason alone that any team can beat any team on any given day. But no matter how cliche that sounds, it is the truth.

However, the last time I checked, the Giants were 12-4 this season and 12-3 when they actually played (the 20-19 loss to Minnesota in Week 17 was played by backups and their backups). So for the sake of using real statistics when Eli Manning was playing and not David Carr and so on, the Giants played .800 ball. And in doing so, their last 10 opponents (all played in a row with no bye weeks) all had winning records. But once again if we discount the Minny game (though I know people will go nuts for doing this) the Giants went 7-2 against Pittsburgh, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Arizona, Washington, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Carolina. Show me another team that played that type of schedule with those kind of results.

And the funniest thing is that the world is pointing to the Giants 1-3 finish to the season. So they lost to Philly, big deal. And they lost to Dallas without Brandon Jacons. And they lost to Minnesota by ONE point playing the JV Team while Minnesota was going balls to the wall to try and clinch a playoff berth AT HOME. Are we forgetting the Giants beat the Panthers, staging a heroic late game comeback to clinch the No. 1 seed and defeat the second best team in the NFC and possibly the league?

Obviously the Eagles have a chance Sunday. It takes one broken play, one untimely turnover, and one missed field goal or botched snap to end a season. And that is why the Giants have a chance to lose, like any other team. But the jokesters of the media and the blogging world who for some reason think the Eagles are lock to win because they beat Minnesota and Dallas are simply too much in love with their inconsistent team. If beating the Cowboys and the Vikings make you “hot” then what does going 7-2 against the best teams in the league nine weeks in a row with no week off make you? “On fire?”

I am not about to pencil in the Giants for the NFC Championship because they are about to be in for on entertaining battle. But I am not about to count them out because the Eagles are supposively “hot” right now.