Didn’t you have warm and fuzzy feelings about that game?
You have listened to how giants and commanders express their 20-20 tie made them feel like losers. Neither team was happy about it.
Well, somebody liked what happened, so the NFL moved the Week 15 rematch at FedEx Field to “Sunday Night Football” and exposed a national television audience to what’s shaping up to be a playoff playoff game. .
The odds are high that the Giants will lose to the Eagles on Sunday and fall to 7-5-1. The Chiefs will surely be 7-5-1 when they take the field next, as they are on a bye week. Either the Giants or the Commanders, but not both, are likely to make the playoffs. So, the first playoff game for the Giants in 25 years has not been beneficial in terms of their position in the NFC, but the second meeting with the Chiefs has always been the most important.
“I’m not sure,” Julian Love said Monday when asked how the tie would affect the playoff chase. “Normally I’m very analytical and understand all of this, but I’m not entirely sure of the full distribution of the last five games. I just know we need wins.”
There is no doubt about it.
According to FiveThirtyEight , the Giants currently have a 50 percent chance of making the playoffs. If they can upset the 11-1 Eagles, that percentage jumps to 76 percent. If they lose to the Eagles, that percentage drops to just 41 percent. If the Giants lose to the Eagles and then beat the Chiefs in a rematch in two weeks, the Giants have a 62 percent chance of making the playoffs.
If you want to get crazy here, if the Giants beat the Eagles and Chiefs in their next two games, their chances of making the playoffs increase to 99 percent. If they lose to the Eagles and Chiefs, their chances drop to 19 percent.
The tie was bad, but not terrible. The Giants have another shot at the commanders and so they are in control of this situation. The tie was detrimental to the Giants when it came to their NFC seeding alongside the Seahawks. The Giants are currently the No. 6 seed and the Seahawks (7-5) are the No. 7 seed. The Giants lost 27-13 in Seattle, so they don’t have a chance to face the Seahawks. Of course, unless there is another tie in a conference with teams vying for postseason berths, a tie would make tiebreakers unlikely. The Giants also lost to the Lions (5-7), but coach Dan Campbell’s team will need a lot of wins to get into the picture.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the Seahawks have a 79 percent chance of making the playoffs. Commanders 69 percent, “lions” 8 percent.
Complicating the next five weeks is that four of the next five games are against teams almost guaranteed a playoff spot (Eagles and Vikings twice) or against a team in a dogfight to get in (Commanders). The only game against a non-contender will be in Week 17 when the Colts play at MetLife Stadium. Considering the Colts fell to the Cowboys in a 54-19 tank job — giving up 33 points in the fourth quarter isn’t easy, but the Colts did it — that should be the only soft touch for the Giants.
The fact that the Giants have two games against the Eagles, who have the best record in the NFL, is the reason why the Giants own the second-toughest remaining schedule in the league behind only the Bears. The only break for the Giants is if their Week 18 game at Philadelphia doesn’t matter to the Eagles — they’re likely the No. 1 seed in the NFC before then — and coach Nick Sirianni has a few of his keys. decided to rest. postseason players.
“You’ve got to get ready to play next week and the next team,” coach Brian Daboll said. “For us, this is the best team in the NFL right now; one loss. They lost to Washington. They have a stellar roster. I think so [Philadelphia Eagles general manager] Howie [Roseman] did a great job of gathering some talent on that team. [Quarterback] Jalen [Hurts] playing phenomenally. It’s the receivers, they’re special, the O-line, the defensive line, the corners. They have an all-star cast.
“So our focus will be on Philadelphia, again against a team that’s going to run through everybody. I think that’s going to be a lot of focus for us.