Panthers @ Giants

hopefully Fox remembers a thing or two about Tiki and Strahan,etc to gameplan for them

 

Let's not forget that a year ago this week, both home NFC Wildcard teams lost. Green Bay was torched by Minnesota, while Seattle was had by St. Louis.

In fact, AFC West champs San Diego were also defeated at home in the wildcard round. Three of four. It's just not that daunting.

6-2 on the road, best in the NFC. I like our chances.

 

The wild card round is a crapshoot, but it's the following week that being a #5 or #6 kills you.

 

Being a #5 or #6 in the NFC would have scared me more before 1999. I would have hated to play in GB, or Dallas, or SFO in the mid-90's. I just don't see that fear factor anymore.

There's no question that it's going to be a tough road. Slightly tougher than 2003. Beating Dallas at home was no upset. Winning in St. Louis, where the Rams had not lost at home all year, was. Beating Philly in the Linc was also a surpise to many.

Also note that both Dallas and Philadelphia won over Carolina in the 03 regular season. I am not saying that Fox is a genius, but they made adjustments in both cases, playing a nearly perfect game against Dallas in January, and wearing down the Eagles in the title game.

It's a different year, sure. I just don't see any one team in the NFC that has a golden ticket to Detroit.

 

Yeah that week off is a huge advantage.

 

I was kinda thinking this might be an option, too.

 

Actually, stop to think how the Giants almost lost to Oakland while Tiki had one of his best games. They almost lost! To Oakland!

So IMHO there are 2 things we need to win this game:
(1) Score early and score often. Jake needs to be on target because he'll be passing, passing, passing because we'll be running, running, running. Their ends rush up and Foster runs in the middle .. just like Jones did to us. It'll take the pressure off the defense and take Tiki out of the equation.
(2) Pray that the same ref crew that we had for Dallas isn't assigned to the game. I don't think they keep the regular season crews together for the playoffs. But they made such a horrible call in the Eagles/Redskins game too that they should be banned from the game. Not even high school!

 

I'm worried that the NFL wants the Manning bros in the SB a little too much. I don't expect to get many favorable calls.

On another note, I enjoyed reading this from Giants NFL site (Q & A with Strahan, Eli and a couple more guys talking about the Panthers and Fox). It's too long to post here but take a peek:

http://www.giants.com/news/transcripts/story.asp?story_id=13104

 

The key to stopping Tiki Barber is simple to understand, but perhaps difficult to execute. All you have to do is tackle well and not be out of position. Barber has an exceptionally high number of 20+ yard runs. When you can keep him from having those runs, his overall numbers don't look nearly as effective. Moreover, I don't think he's a particularly effective short yardage or possession runner.

 

We have the front seven to shut down Tiki. I just do not see him gouging us. I could be wrong but I think the Julius Jones performance was a fluke and that we can really play the run well. I am sure Lucas and Gamble are expecting to get some picks from Eli.