Strap in fellow cowpokes, the ride is about to begin. We now know who our opponent is...could it be? Why yes, it’s our old friends from the NFC East, the New York "Football" Giants. Nothing like an old-fashioned East donnybrook for a playoff game.
So, the one fact that everybody finds amazing, as I did too, is that these two teams have never met in the playoffs. That just seems crazy and I thought that couldn’t be right. But, about five regulars have posted the factoid on the blog, so I guess it’s true. Nick Eatman confirms the numbers.
Of the 91 meetings between the Giants and Cowboys, none of them have been in the playoffs.
Next, I thought about the odds of beating a team three times in a year. Well, it turns out the old tale about it being hard to do is true because most of the times teams split the first two - but if you win the first two - the odds are actually in your favor to win the third. You guys had that covered too, in this diary. 11 out of 17 times the team that won the first two won the third one. You can see a break down here.
Here’s another fun fact. The Giants haven’t lost a game on the road since the first game of the season. We all remember that one, a 45-35 Cowboys win on September 9th. Nick Eatman sums up how I feel about this game.
The New York Giants' season began at Texas Stadium back in September.
The Cowboys hope it's the same place the Giants' season ends as well.
True that.
So we got lots to do this week. All assistant coaches have ceased interviewing and all Mexican vacations have come to an end. The gameplan can now be laid-out, although there won’t be a lot of mystery in this one. It’s not like we aren’t familiar with these guys by now.
I’ve got the Giants win over the Bucs on the Tivo so I’ll be going through that and breaking down the Giants, probably on Tuesday. We’ll be talking to ETVal over at Big Blue View and we’ll do a 5 Questions playoff edition.
This is what we’ve been waiting for all year. All the way back to the Romo Bobble we’ve dreamed of another shot in the playoffs. Free agency, the draft, OTA’s, training camp, preseason and finally, the regular season. All of that was a prelude to this week and next Sunday’s game.
I can’t friggin’ wait.
You can read about the Giants win here, here and here.
In other news, Tony Sparano claims he hasn’t been offered a job yet and the Dolphins concur. Sparano is only thinking about the playoff game now.
"The most important thing right now is what we do here with the Dallas Cowboys," Sparano said. "It was nice to get out and to be able to talk with them. I thank [owner and general manager Jerry Jones] and Coach Phillips for allowing me the opportunity to do that, but I was the first person in the office and I didn't get home until midnight. I couldn't wait to get in here and get back to work."