Believe it! A shot at 1st
Giants have chance to lead NFC East late in season for first time in five seasons
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — In Joe Judge’s first season, the Giants are on the verge of doing something they haven’t done in five years: Earning a late-season share of first place in the NFC East.
A Giants win at the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, and a Philadelphia Eagles loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night, would thrust the Giants and Washington into a first place tie at 4-7.
But the Giants would top the division standings, holding the head-to-head tiebreaker with a 2-0 record against Washington this season.
“It’s crazy,” center Nick Gates said this week coming out of the Giants’ Week 11 bye. “This division’s been a toss-up all year. We’ve gotten lucky in that aspect. Because we could still win a couple more games and we’re right there in the hunt. So we just gotta take care of Cincinnati and do our jobs, and hopefully the Seahawks can do it (Monday), and we’re in first place.”
The last time the Giants were at least tied for first place in the division was Week 2 of 2016 under Ben McAdoo, when they started 2-0. The Giants haven’t been tied for first place in the NFC East late in a season, though, since Week 14 of 2015 under Tom Coughlin at 6-7, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Giants haven’t held sole possession of first since Week 11 of the 2015 season at 5-5. And believe it or not, per Elias, they haven’t been in sole possession of first place in Week 12 or later since Week 14 of the 2012 season with an 8-5 record.
One step at a time, though: Judge doesn’t want his Giants (3-7) focusing on anything other than the Bengals (2-7-1), an injury-riddled team that his team nevertheless can’t look past.
“Nothing is going to help us beat the Bengals other than what we do this week to prepare and how we execute for 60 minutes against Cincinnati,” Judge said. “In terms of the entire division, the most important thing truly is what I always say: being a better team every week and being a better team at the end of the season. Because everyone right now is on equal ground.”
While Judge keeps his eye and his team focused on Cincy, however, this season is setting up favorably for the Giants to make a run.
Washington’s Thanksgiving Day win over Dallas (3-8) was good for the Giants, for example, because the Giants hold the tiebreaker over Washington already but are 0-1 against Dallas with a second meeting set for Week 17 at MetLife Stadium.
The Cowboys also have the easier schedule down the stretch, so handing them extra loss was important for the Giants to keep pace, too.
The Eagles (3-6-1), meanwhile, are a mess. Head coach Doug Pederson opened the door this week to a possible Carson Wentz benching only days after Pederson had said that a move to backup Jalen Hurts would tell his team their season was over.
The Giants, on the other hand, won two straight against Washington and Philly heading into their bye to validate their improving play with results.
The Giants have scored 20 or more points in six straight games after failing to top 16 points in any of their first four games. They haven’t lost a game by more than three points since Week 4 against the Rams.
They could be on a five-game winning streak if Evan Engram hadn’t dropped a fourth-quarter pass in Philadelphia in Week 7 and Daniel Jones hadn’t thrown two terrible interceptions in Week 8 against the Bucs.
Their home win over the Eagles before the bye week was important for their confidence, also, because they finally beat someone in the division other than Washington.