During our post-mortem podcast discussing the New York Giants’ 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders, Tony Del Genio and I raised the likelihood that the Giants are now likely to have win at least one game they are not expected to in order to win the NFC East.
The 5-3-1 Giants have played just one team with a .500 or better winning percentage so far, this season, losing to the Los Angeles Rams 28-6.
That changes beginning in Week 11 with the 6-2 Jacksonville Jaguars. Over their final eight games,
the Giants face the Jaguars, the San Francisco 49ers (7-1), the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (5-4), the Cleveland Browns (5-4), and the Detroit Lions (6-2). There are division games with the Dallas Cowboys and Phiiladelphia Eagles, and a must-win game against the 2-7 Indianapolis Colts.
Thursday’s loss meant the Giants missed a chance to build a cushion with their schedule about to become more daunting.
That, though, is a discussion Giants head coach John Harbaugh did not want to entertain on Friday.
“We don’t live in that scared world,” Harbaugh said. “I said it was an important game before the game for that very reason. But now you don’t sit back and go, oh no, we’ve got to beat a heavyweight or whatever you want to call it. It’s the National Football League. We’re planning on going out there and playing and win the game. So we don’t look at it from that perspective.”
Harbaugh and the Giants have had a “go 1-0 every week” mentality, and you often see players, coaches, and staf members around the team’s facility wearing ‘1-0’ t-shirts.
“It’s okay if you’re not part of the team or you’re covering the team or you’re a fan, you look at that and say, well, which games can we win in these and what chances are we going to have to win? But these guys are going to go play the game,” Harbaugh said. “They’re not going to go into the game saying, “Oh man, this is going to be a tough one for us to win.” They’re all tough to win. Every single one of these games is going to be a big challenge. Every single one of these games is going to be really hard to win. It’s hard winning. It’s tough to win football games in this league.
“I’ve said it from the beginning, we’re going to expect to win every single game. We’re planning on winning. Every game that we go into play, we’re taking the field planning to win. We’ll be preparing that way and that’s what we’ll be doing. We’re going to win as many of them as we can. If we win them all, we win them all, but we’ll win as many as we can.”
Harbaugh knows his team will fight, no matter who the opponent is.
“We’re going to do everything we can do to try to win the game. Our guys are going to fight like crazy. They’re going to compete and we’re capable of making plays. It’s pretty obvious that we can make plays on both sides of the ball. We’re chasing consistency, just like every single team in this league is chasing consistency.
“The so-called heavyweights, I’ve seen them play bad games, too. I’ve seen them have plenty of bad plays. There’s no perfect team in this league. Is that pretty obvious to everybody? This is a tough league. It’s pretty even. We’re in it just like everybody else. We’ll be fighting in there just like everybody else. And I know our guys, nobody’s going to out fight us. That’s for sure. Nobody is going to out compete us without question.”
