ATL/CAR, CIN/HOU, and WAS/CHI don't give me much confidence. DAL has nothing to play for on a technical basis, so it will be interesting to see if Garrett will still motivate them successfully.

Wow almost forgot to make my picks this week.... wouldnt that be a shame.

Happy Giants clinch playoffs day!!!

Also that is not a mistake, I did indeed pick the Browns over the Chargers.... #DogPound

I woke up with a bad hangover and just lost my cool.  It isn't really that I hate the Giants so much.  It is that I dislike Eli so much.  The way he came into the NFL draft is what started it for me.  I believe the Chargers or some other team was looking to draft him and he threw a hissy fit basically saying he wouldn't play for that team and he wanted to go to the Giants.  Oh I'm so privileged because my last name is Manning and my daddy and big bro were NFL quarterbacks.  To me he reeks of mediocrity and only won two super bowls because of lucky catches such as the helmet grab.  That isn't skill to throw a shit pass up to some receiever and hope they make one hell of a catch.  I'm also sick of announcers basically wanting to suck his dick especially in the 4th quarter.  Tired of hearing well its the 4th and Eli is so known for game winning 4th quarter drives.  That is weird because the few times I've watch his "game winning" drives this year in the 4th quarter usually resulted in an interception. 

Kind of tempted to change my Dallas v Lions pick but I'll just hope the team stays motivated to win even with these last two games being pretty much meaningless.

sigh... If you really believe Eli has won two super bowls solely due to throwing 2 (incredible) passes then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you. How quickly we forget or choose to look over, all the late game heroics Eli did in both the 2007 and 2011 seasons to help get his team to both superbowls and the finesse he had in both super bowls to keep the team in the game. Eli has the second most come from behind wins out of all the current starting QBs (Only behind Brady)! Of course the announcers hype up his 4th quarter potential.

inb4 "The defense carried him to both super bowls", right becuase in 2007 the Giants trialed in every post season game and cameback to win all of them just becuase of the defense and in 2011 when the Giants had the 25th overall ranked defense and 32nd ranked run offense Eli did nothing to get the Giants to the super bowl (major eye roll). Not trying to argue your hate becuase we can hate who ever or whatever we want, (I will always hate Brady!) but lets be real, Eli is a guaranteed hall of famer and rightfully deserves it with his impressive stats. Eli is a good NFL QB and an above average QB when the games matter the most.

Although I totally can see why one would think Eli is buns if you solely watched this season because he is playing like trashhhhhhhh right now.

Okay maybe he has some talent but he is deteriorating faster than Peyton when he was getting injured all the time.  He is making a QB like Flacco look better than him.  I suppose he was decent a few years back but his ship might have sailed.  I don't see him lasting another season if he plays like this next year.

changed some picks

I've debated this with myself and some guys in the organization, and I think it will be a great test of the 'process' they have in place. This kind of situation is why the Joneses stuck with Garrett over the years. The team is so young now overall, with a few key veterans that have seen the pitfalls of losing focus/missing opportunities such as Witten and Romo (who is still very much involved from an analytical/prep guy, he is apparently God-tier in emulating the opposing QB playstyles to help the defense prepare, and helps Dak with film and reading the defensive looks in advance).

The company line is to treat this game and all games seriously, and that should generally have positive results with the overall talent levels at play here. This is a better team than they had in 2014 by a reasonable margin. Zeke is better than Murray, the O line has improved from raw talent to peak levels of talent+experience without being old yet, the secondary is FAR better than they were in '14, Lee is healthy, etc. The only drawbacks IMHO are Dez still finding chemistry/timing with Dak (you can tell they're trying to experiment and getting more creative with routes/etc though), and Witten changing from merely slow to completely glacial speed-wise. Whereever Witten is, that's all you can count on, YAC is a rare occurrence now. He can still block, still has good hands despite that unlucky fumble, and still runs the option like a total boss. We've seen him misused slightly of late, if it's 3rd and 8, then he needs to hit that mark. Perhaps it's because they failed a few weeks previously with going away from having 'hot' routes available, and they overcompensated by presenting the checks much more aggressively.

Personally I'd treat the game as an important one, the usual rest/film/practice all to the letter, but only play the starters for a half. That's enough meaningful snaps to complete the intensity and routine of the NFL weekly grind. Look at the halftime score as the 'final' score, then swap to 2nd and 3rd stringers for evaluation and depth polishing for the postseason, which greatly minimizes injury risk to key pieces moving forward. Anyone who watched the NYG/PHI game probably noticed about a half-dozen injuries to some key players on both sides. Some were able to return such as Wentz and Harrison, but dings, bruised ribs, deep muscle contusions, etc, these can be haunting down the stretch. There are about a half-dozen players whose loss would severely curtail Dallas's postseason hopes, and another couple dozen whose loss would harm peak potential and rotation quality. It would be a real shame in a meaningless game to see any of them hurt even minorly.

The opposing logic is to change nothing, and I respect that as well. If nobody is hurt enough to harm things, or overused to the point of sustained fatigue, then of course it makes all the sense in the world to keep as sharp as possible. This is why I dont like to see uninjured players sat for entire games.

Given what I know of the staff and decision-making, I expect to see all uninjured players playing the full final two games, perhaps with only a minor dip in snap counts for a few guys (Tyron, Zeke, Lee, Leary, and a couple of others in particular), with no real 'pulling the starters' happening at all before maybe the 4th quarter against PHI.

Watch the media with this, they and the fans will likely crucify Garrett if any of the stars or key guys get banged up.

All that said, I'm much MORE concerned with having the team come out of the bye with their hair on fire from snap 1. Hopefully the required intensity is achieved immediately, as I've noticed a LOT of teams come out of byes this year looking sluggish, out of sync, disinterested, sloppy, or just plain bad. That was something I noticed very clearly in the SEA@NE game earlier this season. Seattle played 'okay'. It wasn't a particularly exceptional effort by those guys. On the flip side, most of the NE guys just seemed to be sleep-walking out there, aside from Brady. I saw their receivers giving up on routes, saw their defense not hustling to the ball, people out of position with regularity, it was just a dead-legged spectacle. That's just one example, but a trend I saw quite often.

I think you're correct. When's the last time Eli looked solid for even a full half of a game? You'd think playing a team like the Cleveland Browns or Chicago Bears would make for an opportunity for him to look pretty decent, but man .. he's been BAD overall this year. I've heard people make the claim that OBJ saved his career, and I think I agree with that. Without Beckham's big-play ability and great hand skill, the Giants offense would be nearly nonexistent. Shepard is pretty good for a rookie, but not a guy who elevates the team single-handedly (lol) like Odella can.

I'd say 70/30 the Giants draft a QB in the first 2 rounds if they fail to get past the WC round, which is very likely.

I don't think the answer is as simple as Eli is just detirating just due to time.  Just last year, Eli was top 5 in both TD's and passing yards and statsically had one of his best seasons ever. This year Eli is clearly having a tough time adjusting to the changes. Maybe its due to all the new offensive players? Maybe it has to do with overall new managment? I dont know, but I dont think this year is an indication of a trend for Eli. This year has just highlighted how bad he has performed compared to last year. Similiary, Cam has played horribly compared to just last year, his MVP season, and this year he has more offensive weapons with Kelvin Benjamin back from injury. These QB's need time adjusting.

Imo I think the Giants should start looking for a QB either this year or next year no matter the outcome of this seasons post season performance. Im in favor of grooming a QB for a few years before throwing them on the field.