XMAS CHEER
Giants will spend holiday rooting for playof f help
After failing to lock up a playoff berth Thursday in Philadelphia, Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants will be hoping for the Panthers, Vikings or Saints to win today or the Cowboys to win on Monday night. If any of those four results happen, Big Blue will be in the playoffs.
Unless something crazy happens the next few days, the Giants are going to the playoffs for the first time in five years, but after they failed to secure the berth themselves, they are left in the undesirable position of watching, and waiting. And, heaven forbid, perhaps pulling for the enemy. “The best thing to do is to have your own destiny and control it,’’ linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. “And then when it’s out of your control, whatever the percentage is, if you don’t have full control over it, you don’t feel good about that. The last thing I want to do is damn near cheer for friggin’ Dallas.” Cheering for the Cowboys, friggin’ or otherwise, is not a concept the Giants want to take with them into the holiday season. The drive for the postseason, though, makes strange bedfellows. This task could have been completed but was left unattained after the Giants marched up and down the field but only once made it into the end zone in Thursday night’s wasteful 24-19 loss to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. The odds remain astronomical in favor of the Giants (10-5) making it in. They are not in, however, until they are. It was quiet in the visitors’ locker room inside the Linc as offensive linemen Justin Pugh and Marshall Newhouse bandied about the different scenarios involved in the Giants getting into the playoffs. It was clear neither had a secure handle on what help they needed and who they needed it from. Pugh was told there are four games this weekend and on into Monday night, and if just one of them goes the way the Giants want it to go, they clinch a postseason berth for the first time in five years.
“Hey, it wouldn’t be us if it was easy,” Pugh said. “I wanted to clinch, I wanted to enjoy my holidays and enjoy that with us going to the playoffs. Now, we have to rely on other teams to help us out. You never want that.”
You cannot always get what you want, though the Giants certainly do not need much. By as early as 4 p.m. Saturday, they could be in. They get in if the Packers lose to the Vikings in Green Bay, the Falcons lose to the Panthers in Carolina or the Buccaneers lose to the Saints in New Orleans.
If none of those three games go their way, the Giants must wait until Monday night for closure.
On cue, Ben McAdoo on Friday did not acknowledge the Giants are even in the playoff hunt as he revealed his weekend plans.
“I’m gonna stay focused, I’m gonna spend a little time with the family and make sure we stay focused on Washington,’’ McAdoo said.
Asked if his plan for the Redskins would change depending on whether or not the Giants have sealed up a playoff bid, McAdoo said, “It’s hypothetical.’’
There is an eight-game doomsday scenario spread throughout Week 16 and 17 that would leave the Giants out of the playoffs, as they would lose a three-team tiebreaker with the Lions and Buccaneers if all three finish with 10-6 records. There is about a 1 percent chance of this all conspiring to eliminate the Giants.
“You know what the strangest thing is: Now you’ve got to start cheering for other teams,” Casillas said. “I don’t know how the scenario is going to play out this weekend, but we might have to cheer for Dallas. You know what I’m saying? I don’t know how we get to that point. That’s the tough part.’’
If all four of these games go the wrong way for the Giants, they can clinch it themselves by beating the Redskins in the regular-season finale at FedEx Field.
“As long as we get in, I don’t care which way, shape or form we get in,’’ Victor Cruz said. “We just want to get into the dance and see what happens.’’