Giants vs. Eagles

New York -4 vs. Philadelphia

The New York Giants have to be frightened with this Sunday’s matchup with their division-rival Philadelphia Eagles. After all, no one knows you better than a team you face twice per year, but the Giants fright may be in the fact that the Eagles are looking eerily like the 2007 edition of the New York Giants.

The Giants foundered their way through the regular season a year ago and entered the playoffs as a wild-card team. In the divisional round, they face a Dallas Cowboys team that won the NFC East and dominated the league until the last quarter of the year. The Giants who rode a hot streak into postseason play surprisingly dominated the Cowboys and earned a berth in the NFC championship game, which would, of course, later result in a Super Bowl title over the heavily-favored New England Patriots.

The Eagles (10-6-1) have the same record the Giants had a year ago and are in the same fifth seeding which New York resided in. Philadelphia had to be red hot in the final month of the season following a season of ups and downs.

New York (12-4) rested last week after losing three of its final four regular season games. Meanwhile Philadelphia was able to handle the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings, on the road, 26-14.

The Eagles won four of their last five games to get into the postseason. They seemed to respond after two weeks of negative attention was shown to Philadelphia and their quarterback Donovan McNabb. The veteran was criticized for not understanding the tie rule in the NFL after the Eagles and Bengals played to a Week 10 draw. The following week, the team was thrashed by Baltimore, which resulted in the benching of McNabb.

McNabb responded and so did the Eagles. Philadelphia was able to give New York their only home loss of the season on December 7th, 20-14. McNabb passed for 191 yards and was helped by running back Brian Westbrook’s 131 yards rushing and 72 yards receiving, including a 40-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

That same week was the same week that may have turned the Giants season around for the negative. Plaxico Burress and Antonio Pierce were involved in a nightclub incident that left Burress with an accidental shotgun wound to his leg. Burress was dismissed from the team and the Giants offense has suffered since.

The offense also struggled in the second half because starting running back Brandon Jacobs was in and out of the lineup due to various injuries. He was forced out at halftime in the December game against Philadelphia but ran for 126 yards and two scores when the Giants dropped the Eagles in Philadelphia 36-31 on November 9th.

Despite the most recent nod going to Philly, New York has won six of the last nine meetings. This will be the fourth time that the rivals have met up in the postseason, with the Philadelphia Eagles winning the last matchup, 23-20 in a January 7, 2007 wild-card contest.

InSpin.com