New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys Find Reversal of Fortune

The 11-2 NY Football Giants rode into tonight's game at Texas Stadium looking to inch closer to securing a first round playoff bye. Seeking to keep their own playoff hopes alive, the Dallas Cowboys hobbled in amid infighting, name-calling, and controversy. 

While Vegas oddsmakers tabbed the Cowboys as the favorite (given home field advantage and the Giants' dreadful history at Texas stadium), many pundits picked the Giants based on their 11-2 season.

Yet Dallas easily won the game 20-8 to maintain the No. 5 Wild Card position. New York was thrashed by an NFC East opponent for the second game in a row. (They lost handily to the Eagles last week.)

Does this scenario sound eerily familiar to anyone? It should.

Just one year ago, the 13-3 Cowboys struggled down the stretch after securing the division and a first round bye.

They barely edged out a dreadful Detroit Lions team 28-27 at Ford Field and then lost two out of their last three games (against NFC East opponents Philadelphia and Washington) prior to heading into the playoffs.

New York looked strong closing out their season in 2007. They won three out of four games before losing a very close game against the New England Patriots in the final week of the season. (Some point to that last game as an emotional victory since it helped fuel their dynamic run through the playoffs.)

They did all that amid coaching controversies (Coughlin was thought to be on the firing line), player tension, and some fervent fan apprehension. 

Fast forward to 2008, where suddenly the Dallas Cowboys appear to be the hot team from the NFC East heading into the playoffs (though they are still a couple of wins away from clinching a spot), and the Giants have suddenly sputtered. 

Sure, the Giants can still reverse this nasty trend by posting solid efforts in their final two games against Carolina and at Minnesota. (And they will need to do so if they want to earn that first round bye and potentially home field advantage through the NFC playoffs.)

Yet their success has also brought them another challenge. They won the Super Bowl last year on the strength of being a gritty road team and underdog in all four playoff games (the Super Bowl included).

The pundits on Fox and CBS picked against the Giants in every single game. The Giants kept surprising them all until they reached the pinnacle of professional sports by dethroning the previously undefeated Patriots in historic, comeback fashion.

Can the Giants achieve the same playoff success as the favorite at home?

It remains to be seen.

The Giants haven't won a home playoff game at Giants Stadium since Kerry Collins defeated the Philadelphia Eagles and drubbed the Minnesota Vikings en route to losing to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV after the 2000 football season.

That was a very different team, and a very different quarterback.

Eli Manning is a good quarterback, and he's well earned his accomplishments. But he's yet to master throwing a tight spiral in blustery Giants Stadium. It remains to be seen whether he can carry the team on his back in two successive home games.

As a Giants fan, I really do hope that Eli proves my misgivings wrong. I fear the Giants may get bounced in the divisional round of the playoffs. I hope that the Giants rise up to the challenge and surmount it.

I'm glad to be writing sports articles for the first time since my days on the campus newspaper in undergrad. That brings back good memories.

-Scott