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Maybe the Giants can convince Rangers superfan Tim Robbins to make a pit stop in East Rutherford before catching his next hockey game at Madison Square Garden.
Then Robbins can stand in front of the team and recite one of his iconic lines as jail-breaker Andy Dufresne in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
The NFC makes sure of it.
Written off after a 1-5 start as headed for a fifth straight season of no playoffs, the Giants (3-6) have won two of their past three games to join the logjam of hopefuls in the second year of the expanded playoff field. The Falcons (4-4) hold a half-game lead over the Panthers (4-5) for the No. 7 seed — and the Giants compete at that level as seen in a final-play loss to the Falcons and their most-lopsided win in two years over the Panthers.
The rest of the field is crowded by the Vikings, Seahawks and 49ers (all 3-5), and the Eagles, Giants and Bears (all 3-6). Washington (2-6) has wins over the Falcons and Giants, so only the Lions (0-8) truly are out of the picture.
Compared to the AFC — where 11 of 16 teams are over .500 — the NFC features five legitimate Super Bowl contenders and then maybe two open playoff spots, depending upon belief in the quarterback-needy Saints (5-3).
“The biggest thing we’re focused on right now is just improving ourselves and going 1-0 each week,” coach Joe Judge said. “You do that, it’ll take care of itself in the big picture. Are you conscious of what’s going on in the rest of the league? You are. But are you focused on it? No.”
Here’s the main reason to hope: Even if the Giants return from the bye week with a loss to the Buccaneers to fall to 3-7, only two of the final seven opponents (Cowboys, Chargers) have winning records. The combined winning percentage for those seven opponents (Eagles twice) is .400.
What’s more? The Giants have a winning formula now that the defense is meeting high expectations after a disappointing start. In all nine wins of the Judge-Jason Garrett-Patrick Graham era, the Giants have allowed 21 or fewer points. Seven times that point total is 16-21.
The Giants started 1-7 last season and had no business entertaining playoff thoughts. But Graham’s defense kept scores close, the Giants won four straight and had a chance to backdoor an NFC East title until the final game of the NFL’s regular-season slate.
“Speaking to [Raiders quarterbacks] Derek Carr a lot and to Marcus Mariota, who I’m close friends with, they had trouble with our disguise,” safety Logan Ryan said, “so I think that’s getting better — and that just takes time to work on that. It just takes reps with the unit to work on disguise to make it hard on these really good quarterbacks.”
The other half of the winning formula is to bleed 21 points out of Garrett’s injury-plagued offense.
“We’ve played games differently based on the opponent, based on what the opportunity is,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “That’s encouraging that we can do different things as a group.”
Of the Giants’ final seven opponents after the Buccaneers, only one (Cowboys) ranks in the top 10 in scoring. Three (Dolphins, Bears, Washington) average fewer points per game than the Giants (19.9).
“I’m not looking at the standings at all. It’s way too early to tell,” Ryan said. “Red [zone] area, third down, keeping points down, two-minute [drill], I think those are areas of emphasis and areas we’ve improved on.”
Unlike last year, the Cowboys have a firm grasp on the NFC East. But two of three wild-card spots are open enough to believe there will be one playoff team with a losing record. The Giants already beat the current No. 6 Saints.
“A lot of guys around here are from last year and kind of leaning on some of that experience,” Jones said. “It’s just a credit to staying focused on one week at a time and making sure we’re locked into what we’re doing to prepare. That’s the approach we’ve got to take going into Tampa as well — not get outside of that and not try to see a bigger picture.”
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