Eleven wins and five losses and finally after what seems like the shortest seventeen weeks, it is finally time.  The Road to Super Bowl LI (51) and the Giants look poised to win it… well at least because I’m a super-biased Giants fan.  But hopefully I can continue this match-up analysis for the remainder of the playoffs.

Oh boy Playoffs

Alright, so this weekend kicks off the start of the NFL playoffs with the wild-card round and for anyone who is not a fan of any of the other three games occurring, the New York Giants at Green Bay Packers is arguably the best game of the weekend.  And for many reasons, as it becomes the first game in NFL history to have two previous Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks facing off head-to-head in the wild-card round, in Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers.  As well as making NFL history, many analysts have said that the winner of this game is poised for a trip to Houston in February.  And just like in their 2007 and 2011 playoff runs that led to Super Bowl wins, the New York Giants will travel to play a Green Bay Packers team they faced in the regular season. And like those years, the Giants lost the first meeting.  This time the Giants will come out victorious and head to Dallas/Atlanta/Seattle/Detroit, looking to continue the journey to lift the Lombardi Trophy in Houston.  In my opinion, in order to ensure playoff longevity, the Giants need to excel in two things: ball protection and having a solid ground game.

Rain Drop Drop Top The Packers  Defense Better Drop Drop (the ball)

In the regular season the Giants were tied for eighth in the league for most turnovers with twenty-seven.  These twenty-seven turnovers are  the most turnovers among the twelve playoff teams, which can concern the fans.  But come playoff time I believe that Eli Manning transforms from a solid starting quarterback to a Hall of Fame quarterback, a 99 overall in Madden, or even maybe Peyton Manning in his prime with an Eli mask. The defense has done their job all throughout the year with twenty-five takeaways, which is fantastic especially from a team that finished in the bottom half of the league last year in total defense.However, to make it far in the postseason the offense will have to do a better job taking care of the ball and that starts with Eli… or Peyton if my theory is correct.

Run To The Hills… Does Houston Have Hills?

Disastrous, horrible, inconsistent: those are just some of the words to describe the run game, or for most games, the lack of a run game for the Giants this season.  However, with it looking to snow and be freezing cold in Lambeau this weekend, the Giants cannot rely on Beckham to one hand catch everything.  In order to free up some space for our three headed monster in OBJ, Cruz, and Sterling Shepard, the Giants need to legitimize their run game and make the Packers respect it.  As of now, the entire league knows the Giants to be a primarily passing offense and all of the receivers are double and triple covered.  However, this week the surging rookie out of UCLA Paul Perkins has taken over the lead back spot from Rashad “The Poet” Jennings and looks shiftier than ever in the backfield.  He is going to need to have a career day to help the Giants pull through and defeat the Packers, but it is not impossible, especially how he’s been playing in recent weeks.

Theories

This team is my everything and my source of happiness on most Sundays and Mondays following a win.  For this team I make so many excuses and coincidences that would lead to good fortune for the Giants.  I’ve thought deeply about such theories like one that was  valid until a couple years ago. It was how whenever LeBron James lost in the NBA Finals, the Giants would win the Super Bowl the following season.  But this season I have coincidences that will surely not fail me.  In 2007 and 2011, the years in which the Giants won the Super Bowl (the happiest two days of my life ,can I have a third?), they had to play the Packers at Lambeau in the playoffs and as stated earlier in the article in those seasons the Giants had also played the Packers in the regular season and lost.  This year, in the regular season, the Giants lost to the Packers and meet them again in Green Bay in the playoffs.  And my second theory is that two of the last three times  the Giants had made the playoffs, the Super Bowl was in an indoor stadium, the University of Phoenix Stadium and Lucas Oil Stadium.  This year the Super Bowl is again in an indoor stadium in Houston’s NRG Stadium and the Giants this year are in the postseason.  Coincidence? I think not.

* photo via Google Images under the Creative Commons license