The battle for the NFC East happening Sunday Night Football in the final regular season game of the 2011 season will not only decided who is going to host a NFC playoff game but who will be playing in the playoffs and who will be sitting at home wondering what if. Also it will decide which head coach will keep his job and who will be handed a pink slip on Monday morning or close there after because Jerry Jones a couple weeks a go gave Jason Garrett the vote of confidence of death while Tom Coughlin has been riding the borrowed time that winning Superbowl XLII almost four years ago and on a number of times it has looked like he had lost the team on a number times. Including last season when the Eagles in week 15 scored 28 unanswered points in the last 7 and a half minutes of the game including DeSean Jackson scored on the last play of the game a 65 yard punt return where the special teams missed assignments which cost the Giants the division. Then at the end of the 2009 regular season in their final game at Giants Stadium they mailed it in losing 45-9 to the Carolina Panthers and then the next week in their final regular season game of 2009 they got their doors blown off again this time by the Minnesota Vikings.
So this Sunday night the 8 and 7 teams will be fighting to face either the Atlanta Falcons or the Detroit Lions and the Giants have sucked at home going 3 and 4 this season but did beat the Cowboys 37-34 with Eli Manning throwing for over 400 yards and Hakeem Nicks had 163 receiving yards. While the Cowboys have been the team that has been taken huge leads this season and blowing them most noticeably in Dallas against the Lions when the Lions climbed back from a 24 point deficit including two interceptions thrown by Tony Romo returned for TDs and then laying two eggs against the less than dream team Eagles and another loss in front of their fans in Arizona this season. The Giants have been a up and down team this season losing both games against the Redskins and then they also went into New England and broke the Pats winning streak at home which goes back like three or four seasons and staying close to the Packers and then have a loss to the Eagles.
So this game is going to come down to Eli Manning and if he will have time to step back and find Nicks or Victor Cruz before he gets smashed by DeMarcus Ware who has been a monster this season with 18 sacks so he will need to be doubled but that may leave another of their pass rushers an open line to Manning. Also will Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs will be able to run the ball effectively to counteract the pass rush against the 14th best defense including given up 98.6 yards on the ground with the 7th rush defense and 238.3 yards through the air as the 23 best pass defense.
When the Cowboys are on offense it will be if Tony Romo can get the ball down the field to Dez Bryant, Laurent Robinson, and Miles Austin or if he can dump the ball off to Jason Witten before Jason Pierre-Paul gets to him just like the game in Dallas where he had 8 tackles and 2 sacks so will be a handful for the Cowboy linemen and DeMarco Murray can have a game like his first two games it would Romo. Romo will be up against the 28 ranked defense who gave up 255.4 through the air and 26 TDs which will allow Romo to put up yards through the air if he gets time to throw but if he is not carefully the Giants defense had 19 interceptions this seasons and the Giants also gave up 126.1 yards on the ground.
So I think it is more likely that Romo and the Cowboys will find away to win this game because the Giants can fall apart in big games and almost not show up prepared but then sometimes the Giants can surprise people and win games when it looks bleak so lets say that its up to the big monster defensive ends to decide the game so if Jason Pierre-Paul has a bigger game then the giants will win and if DeMarcus Ware has the bigger day Cowboys will be heading to the playoffs.
Will see Sunday night
Tom Mehegan
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