Playoffs: Giants O vs. Philly D

Well, deserved or not, the 2006 NY Giants are in the playoffs, and what better opponent could they face than the hated Philadelphia Eagles? What's already an intense rivalry during the regular season is sure to reach a boiling point by kickoff, for players and fans alike.

Giants O:

The Giants ended the season ranked 14th in overall offense and were able to put up 34 points and 261 yards on the Washington Redskins last week in a playoff-clinching win. Now the question arises as to whether the credit for the 34 points should be given to Kevin Gilbride, who's now calling the plays, to the Giants offense, for showing up, or to the Skins defense for being so bad. After all, the O was only able to produce 16.1 points per game in the previous 7 contests and at times seemed to lack life.

The questions will be answered quickly and if Gilbride wants to keep his job and not be run out of town he had better be smart and use the primary weapons system in his death star, also known as Tiki Barber. As mentioned, the Giants ran for an absurd 261 yards last week, albeit against the porous Redskins defense, but the feat was still convincing. They never abandoned the run and set up the pass by forcing the Skins to concentrate on Tiki. The same needs to happen this Sunday and Philly may find out the hard way that Eli Manning is an NFL quarterback.

The running game is still the heart of the offense and is ranked 7th in the NFL with 134.8 yards per game. By rushing the football effectively the Giants will keep Philly's offense off of the field and set the tempo for the game. That does not mean that Eli Manning and the passing attack won't be relied on to give the team a boost. To the contrary, Manning will be called on to run a smart, ball control offense and limit mistakes, notably turnovers.

Septics will point out that only 3 quarterbacks have thrown more interceptions that Manning's 18, yet the fact is that only 3 have thrown more touchdowns that his 24. Manning leads a passing attach that his ranked 19th in the NFL and features weapons such as TE Jeremy Shockey (66 catches 623 yards 7 scores) and WR Plaxico Burress (63 catches 988 yards 10 scores). The Giants will certainly miss WR Amani Toomer in this game, as Toomer routinely burns the Eagles and his presence alone limits the amount of blitzing they'll do.

Eagles D:

The eagles will have a simple game-plan on Sunday. That is, stop Tiki Barber and make Eli Manning thrown the ball. They're sure to blitz Manning until he's dizzy and he'll need to play a great game to beat the Eagles and their solid defense.

On the surface, the Eagles run defense is weak, ranked 26th in the NFL, while allowing 136.4 yards per game. Of late, however, the run stuffers have shown up and limited the last 3 opponents to 110 yards per game, including 88 to the Giants on December 17, a 36-22 Philly win. LB Jeremiah Trotter is the heart and soul of the run defense and the Giants will certainly need to hut hats on him if they want to be successful. The prediction? Tiki goes ape $hit and rolls off 145 and 2 scores. The defense will come to play, but the offense of the Giants will be too much.

The reason Tiki will find running room is simple. Manning will pick up the blitz and find Shockey and Burress, forcing Philly to abandon thew blitz, leaving room for Tiki to do his thing. The pass defense of the Eagles is ranked 9th int he NFL, though they can be beaten by tall receivers. S Brian Dawkins is an ultra hard hitter and a fierce competitor. He leads the unit which will no doubt be fired up.

DE Trent Cole anchors the defensive line, which may find itself overpowered at times by a strong Giants O line. Again, without Trotter making plays in the middle. this defense takes on a different look and can be had. The Giants will undoubtedly try to take him out of the game and will have great success if they do.