A Win This Week in Philly Will Go A Long Way

After seven weeks, the Giants are 5-2, the Cowboys and Eagles are 4-2 and the Redskins are 2-5.

The positives to that are that the Giants are 2-0 in the NFC East with a half-game up in the division and their bye week still to come.

The negatives are that the Giants let a winnable game get away from them Sunday night against Arizona, while Dallas and Philadelphia recorded key wins.

The Cowboys will make a playoff run and defeating Atlanta head-to-head on Sunday helped their post-season chances.  The Eagles thrashed Washington last night, which doesn’t seem like a huge achievement these days, but it is a division win.

The Giants, by losing to New Orleans and Arizona back-to-back, may have sealed their fate for January.  Those teams will most likely either win their divisions or vie for a wild card.  By losing to those games, the Giants have hurt their head-to-head tiebreaker chances vs those teams.  The way New Orleans is playing they could win 13 or more games.  That means the Giants would have to win all of their remaining games to keep pace.

That is why the Giants must win the NFC East. But it won’t be easy.

They play the Eagles this week in Philadelphia.  This is key game that could determine how the rest of the season goes.  The Eagles are hurting, but they are never out of contention. If the Giants can win this game, they will be 6-2 and 3-0 in the division.  That will put more pressure on their rivals going forward. They could go 5-3 in the final eight games and still win the East.

The Giants schedule from here out is grueling, especially when you consider how poorly the defense has been playing.  Should they beat Philadelphia this week, the schedule still promises to be challenging:

San Diego, bye, Atlanta, @ Denver, Dallas, Philadelphia, @ Washington, Carolina and @ Minnesota.

Sweeping the East would only give them 9 wins.  As you can see, there are no easy games left.  That is why this loss to Arizona is so disappointing.