Surveying the Home Stretch: What Must the NY Giants Do to Earn Playoff Berth?

The New York Giants are currently on cruise control with a 6-2 record, but they still have some work to do to earn their playoff birth.

For starters, they have two games they absolutely cannot lose. The games against the Washington Redskins and the New Orleans Saints. 

These are games they just can't really afford to lose, seeing as both times have battled their own problems throughout the season. The rest of their schedule is just too rough to not get the W in either of those games.

Why not the Week 17 game against the Philadelphia Eagles? I personally don't think the last game of the season will mean that much to the G-Men. They have another eight games ahead of them, and winning only half of them should be enough for them to make the playoffs.

The Eagles are a mess at 3-4, and the Dallas Cowboys have the same record and a schedule that is pretty similar to that of the Giants.

The Cowboys and Giants could very well take a good amount of losses going forward, but one team is 3-4 while the other is 6-2.

Dallas has a lot of catching up to do, and I can't really see them doing it. This is why the G-Men have a very clear path to repeating as NFC East champions; they control their own destiny. It also helps that they're the only team above .500 in the NFC East.

As long as the Giants don't go on a three-game losing streak or worse, I can't really see how they don't win.

The injury bug will get everyone sooner or later, but the Giants have had much worse years in that regard.

The NFC East and the playoffs are waiting, now it's just up to the G-Men to take what can very realistically be theirs.