All right Giants, this is it.
No, seriously. This really is it. You’ve run out of get-out-of-jail free cards.
Each week from now, until they meet official elimination from playoff contention, the Giants will cling to hopes that the rest of their games remain relevant, with a playoff carrot dangling at the end of the stick.
After their stunning, humbling, mortifying 0-6 start, the Giants finally won a game on Monday, albeit against an inept Vikings team that was as poorly coached for 60 minutes as an NFL team can be and with a quarterback who had no business starting, having practiced with the team for about 20 minutes.
But no matter. The Giants won a game. Finally. Baby steps.
Now, the next stop is Philadelphia for a 1 p.m. game against the Eagles on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Giants actually have a chance to nudge themselves back into the conversation for the NFC East divisional race — as preposterous as that might sound.
Here is the latest best-case-scenario for the Giants Sunday:
- The Giants beat the Eagles to improve to 2-6 as they go to their bye week, and drop the Eagles to 3-5.
- The Cowboys lose at 4-3 Detroit and fall to 4-4.
- The Redskins lose at 6-1 Denver to fall to 2-5.
These scenarios are hardly out of the question. The Cowboys are 3-point underdogs in Detroit and the Redskins are 13-point dogs in Denver. You can make the argument the most unlikely of these scenarios to take place is the Giants beating the Eagles, who are favored by 5 ½ points against the same Giants they defeated three weeks ago at MetLife Stadium.
But if those three things do take place, with a half a season still to play, the Giants will be just two games behind the Cowboys for first place in the NFC East, one game behind the Eagles and a half-game behind the Redskins. What looked like the impossible will have suddenly cracked the door ajar to possible.
“This is the time,’’ Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. “This is our chance. We have put ourselves in a bad situation, but there’s no reason for us to get discouraged, because all of our goals are still attainable. If things go our way then we can rattle some wins off and win a Super Bowl. That’s what our focus us on.’’
Whoa, Mathias. Easy. Those last few words surely would make coach Tom Coughlin queasy.
One. Game. At. A. Time. This is where the Giants focus has to be. A look at the big picture is far too daunting.
A look back to the Jets’ 2002 season, however, could give the Giants hope. The Jets were 2-5 and headed to San Diego to play the 6-1 Chargers. With one more loss sure to dash the Jets’ playoff hopes, I asked Jets coach Herman Edwards how difficult it might be for players to continue playing hard without “a playoff carrot to chase.’’
That’s when Edwards launched into his famous “You play to win the game’’ rant.
The Jets routed the Chargers that week, 44-13, and won nine of their final 12 games to make the playoffs, where they won a wild-card game before losing in the divisional round.
Is this relevant to the Giants’ current plight? Only in that there is still a chance for them.
“This is definitely all-or-nothing,’’ safety Ryan Mundy said. “We understand what it takes. We understand the hole we’ve dug ourselves in, and it’s our responsibility to dig ourselves out. This league is all about stacking wins.’’
The Giants’ stack is a small one right now.
“We don’t have any more games that we can lose,’’ cornerback Terrell Thomas said. “We can’t waste any more games. A lot of times this season this football team has not played as one. We’ve played in groups, not as one. Monday night you saw glimpse of it.
“This is an important week for us. Our goal is to win one game each week and see what happens. We know this NFC East always comes down to a dogfight in the end. Hopefully, if we do our part we’ll be there at the end.’’