And that’ll wrap up the top seed in the NFC playoffs.
A big win today for the New York Football Giants as they once again drove home the point that they are the best team in the NFL and the only elite team for that matter. By beating the Arizona Cardinals 36-24, the Giants have now beaten Washington, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Arizona, and Baltimore aka five of the possible 11 playoff teams not named the New York Giants. And with the win the Giants only road loss since Week 1 of 2007 remains the loss to the Browns this season.
Eli Manning was great again today at 26 of 33 for 240 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions. Missing both Brandon Jacobs and Plaxico Burress, the Giants made pretty easy work of the NFC West’s best and Derrick Ward’s 69 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving played a major part. But aside from the play of Manning and Ward, the biggest factor on teh Giants today was Domenik Hixon, who had six receptions for 57 yards and kickoff returns of 29, 83, and 68 yards.
The defense didn’t have their best game, but they were able to sack Kurt Warner once (Justin Tuck), which also forced a fumble, and they were able to pick off the former Giant one time (Terrell Thomas) as well. In the air Warner threw for 351 yards, but that also came on 52 passing attempts. If you throw the ball that many times, you are going to rack up the yards, but that is also the problem with the Arizona Cardinals because they are a one dimensional football team and they showed that again today by throwing for 351 yards and only running for 23 yards on 15 carries, an average of 1.53 yards per carry.
So the Giants proved that they are the best team in football today and the Cardinals proved that their record is a product of their schedule. Playing in the NFC West with six games total against Seattle (2-9), San Francisco (3-8), and St. Louis (2-9), they are basically staked to a 6-0 record before even playing a game. And with that 6-0 start they need to win just four of their 10 games to make the postseason. Sounds crazy? it shouldn’t. The Cardinals seven wins have come against San Francisco (twice), Seattle, St. Louis, Miami, and Dallas. In other words, the Cardinals are fitting the exact formula I just mapped out. Once they beat Seattle and St. Louis again they will have nine wins on the season, but they don’t even need to win another game this season because here is how the NFC West looks:
ARI, 7-4
SF, 3-8
SEA, 2-9
STL, 2-9
Pretty embarrassing division if you ask me. But nevertheless someone from the division has to make the playoffs and this year it happens to be the Cardinals. But given their one-dimensional offense and lack of a defense, I don’t see them playing more than once in the postseason.
So what does today’s win mean for the NFC East? Well here is what the Beast looks like after 12 weeks:
NYG, 10-1
WSH, 7-4
DAL, 7-4
PHI, 5-5-1
The Giants have wrapped up the East, though they did that long ago, and now they have also wrapped up the top seed in the conference. But Philadelphia officially eliminated themselves from playoff contention with the loss at Baltimore and also might have ended Donovan McNabb’s career as a Philadelphia Eagle.
The Redskins and Cowboys situation is a tricky one and is only going to get more exciting. But you can read all about that in the Monday Morning Hangover.