(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
As the clock ticked down on Jan. 11, 2009, at Giants Stadium and the season was coming to a close, I thought about how a division title with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs was wasted away into the waiting wings of the Philadelphia Eagles.
A team that had overcome so much to get hold of the No. 1 seed—losing a Hall of Fame defensive end to retirement, a Pro Bowl pass rusher to the IR in training camp, a Pro Bowl tight end in a trade, and top offensive player to a bullet—had finally met its match at the hands of a disturbingly familiar foe.
The No. 6 seed in the NFC, the Eagles got hot and lucky all at the right time and had an almost unthinkable chain reaction of upsets and collapses (Tampa Bay's abysmal fourth quarter performance at home against Oakland was the clincher) to give them the final playoff spot after destroying the Cowboys.
It is essential to revisit all this before the start of 2009 because no team brought it to the Giants like Philadelphia did last season.
The Giants lost two of three to Philly. Even in the Giants' lone win in Week 9, the Eagles had a chance to win with under two minutes to play but could not convert a fourth-and-1 on their own 45.
If this team does not learn from its mistakes, it's doomed to repeat them.
As the season approaches, the Giants need to look no further than the game films against their division rivals to get a jump-start on what they need to do to succeed and begin a march back to the Super Bowl.
The Giants have the luxury of getting a shot at all but one of the teams that beat them last season, the exception being the Cleveland Browns, but they have to wait until Week 8 to get another crack at Philly.
Opening week, the Giants get the Washington Redskins at home for the second-straight season before their first shot at redemption when they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys.
The Week 2 Sunday night match-up will put the Giants into the national spotlight as the Cowboys host their first game in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
The Cowboys knocked off the G-Men last season in the second of the teams' two meetings at home in mid December. It was at this moment, the first time the Giants had lost back-to-back games since the start of the 2007 season, that the Giants' lack of Plaxico Burress was extremely troubling and widely noticeable.
It was no coincidence the Eagles and Cowboys were the teams to expose the Giants for what they were, either.
Both teams lost their first meeting but rallied and held the Giants' league-leading rushing attack to under 100 yards in back-to-back to games and limited Eli Manning to no more than 314 yards passing and only one touchdown combined the second time around.
In the previous two games, Manning had five touchdown passes and the Giants ran for a combined 419 yards.
Trends like this need to be avoided for the Giants to succeed in 2009, and it starts with the coaching staff and play calling.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride now has to find ways to minimize Manning's reliance on Burress and utilize the talent he has on the field. Too many times last season Domenik Hixon was being used that way, but as well all know, Hixon is not Plaxico.
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