The Green Bay Packers will face either a fired up New York Giants team this weekend or a New York Giants team in disarray. Hell, maybe both.
The Giants took an epic loss on Sunday, blowing a 21-point fourth quarter lead to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Put the Packers in place of the Giants and the Vikings in place of the Eagles and you’ll understand the significance.
The collapse handed the division to the Eagles, but the Giants can still make the playoffs as a wild card by beating the Packers, this weekend. They can also make the playoffs by winning in week 17, but they’ll need some help.
In other words, it behooves them to win this week and safety Antrel Rolle was quick to offer a guarantee the Giants would beat the Packers.
“I don’t think it, I know it,” Rolle said when asked if the Giants would make the playoffs. “That’s because that’s what’s going to happen. I know it’s going to happen this weekend. I have no doubt. I said it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”
Okay, so it’s going to happen…
Wait a second, I suspect the Packers will have something to say about that.
I can’t remember the last time someone guaranteed a win in the NFL and his team actually won, but maybe this is what the team needs to get fired up for the game.
After the loss, the team was in disarray, which prompted a players-only meeting where quarterback Eli Manning addressed the situation.
“It is not the time right now to start going into the tank or slacking off or being in a bad mood,” Manning said. “Now is the time when we got to be excited and look at the bright side of things and be optimistic and say we got a great opportunity to make the playoffs.
“We’re the one who is going to decide whether we make the playoffs and what happens. It is only us.”
To say the Giants will be under a great deal of pressure to win on Sunday is an understatement, but the Packers also need to win to have a shot at a wild card berth.
With so much on the line, it will be interesting to see which Giants team shows up.
Hopefully it’s the one that showed up in the fourth quarter of the Eagles debacle.
You folks had better hope so!
;-)
“They can also make the playoffs by winning in week 17, but they’ll need some help.”
What would need to happen in order for the Packers to get forced out despite winning their last two games? Everyone is reporting that two Packers wins gets them in, but there also seems to be a ‘but’ or ‘unless’ scenario that no one is explaining.
I believe the Packers have to win the final two to make it as a wild card. It may be possible they can beat the Giants, lose to the Bears and still make it, but a lot of other things would need to play out that I think are even too convoluted to comprehend right now. If they lose to the Giants, the second-place team in the NFC East will get the wild card. The Saints are in line for the other spot.
Thanks for the response, Monty.
I guess what I am really looking to find out is, if the Packers win both of their games, is there any way they would still miss the playoffs?
Nope if we win out we are the 6 seed no way we can get knocked out, we control our own destiny which is all you can ask for at this point of the season. Heck we can even sneek in and pick up the 5 seed if we win out and the saints lose out, because they would lose a tiebreaker to tampa who they play week 17, and we hold the tiebreaker over tampa so that would make us 5 and tampa 6, and we’d get to play either St louis or Seattle in the first round…Pretty big longshot but that would be AWESOME!! GO PACK GO!!
In the first half of last week’s game, the Giants looked like the best team in the NFC. Eli Manning has already proven he can play in cold weather. So, this could really be a tough game on Sunday.
Home advantage will dull the Giants’ pass rush a little, same as it did in 2007. It is more difficult to rush the passer when it is cold out and you have less traction. Also to the Packers’ advantage, maybe, is that the Giants no longer have Plaxico or Amani Toomer, both of which were big WRs who performed well in the cold. With Hakeem Nicks and Mario Maningham, the Giants have probably just as good or better a WR core, but we don’t know how they will perform in really cold weather, which this game is almost guaranteed to be in.
On the negative side is the fact that the Giants are an even better running team than they were in 2007. Also, of course, the health of A-Rodge, Collins, and Jenkins are all a concern. The Packers probably need all 3 of these guys to play to have a chance. Not only do we need A-Rodge to play, but we need him better by Wednesday so that he can go through the full practice and game film schedule necessary for such a huge game. If he goes out there rusty, we are in deep shit.
Eli Manning held the meeting to explian how to properly fuck a Sheep’s ass. The Giants will be too busy screwing farm animals this week and we will beat thier asses.
Buddy, you GB Packin’ that a$$ full of Wisconsin chedda’ for the long winter? You should be.
hey may be a hick, but he was still right