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promo code Big Blue. Blue Wire. Welcome back. It's the Big Blue Banter. New York Giants Football Podcast. I'm Dan Schneier. It's always my host, Nick Falado. And tonight we're going to do things a little differently for this recap, rapid reaction episode. I can focus too much on the Giants Eagles game today, though talk a little bit about it, some of the things we saw. But we're going to actually take a little bit of a forward-looking stance, and we're going to look at,

we're going to talk about how we feel heading into the playoff week right now. The Giants have a playoff game this weekend. We don't know the time yet or the day yet against Minnesota Vikings. We do know the opponent. It's the Vikings again, a rematch of a few years ago. I'm sorry, a few weeks ago, not a few years.

Also a rematch a few years ago, I'm sure.

And, you know, it's the eve of playoff week. rematch of a few years ago. I'm sorry, a few weeks ago, not a few years. Also a rematch a few years

ago, I'm sure. And, you know, it's the eve of playoff week. And so we want to talk about how we feel going into this. So I want to start there, Nick. And I want to say this, you know, I feel really good about where the Giants are at heading into this playoff week. It's not, and this was not how was always going to be there was a chance that we were going to make the playoffs at least for me nick

there's a chance we're going to make the playoffs and I was going to feel like, nah, whatever. You know what team felt like that two years ago when Tampa won its first Super Bowl with Brady? The Washington commander is going into that game. That wild card game against Brady, they had Heineke playing at the time. that version I wouldn't have felt that good about. I don't feel that way about the Giants right now. I feel higher than that. I feel a little bit more optimistic than that for multiple reasons, not just because of the offensive showcase they put on against the Vikings two weeks ago and because that's their first opponent. I feel like this team is actually starting to click and get right or get to their best level at the right time right now. And not only are they starting to click and get to the best level, I don't really believe that taking the week off like they did today is going to change anything coming this Sunday. We'll see if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it. I know there's some examples, you know, there's some very small sample size studies of teams that have rested their starters and they came out and the record after that hasn't been great. But it's like, okay, that's correlation. That's not causation. That's a big issue some people have. Right. They mix up correlation and causation. We don't know any of the other factors with those matchups that they lost in the playoff game. Right. We don't know anything. So many variables that would go into that. What we also know is, and this gets my second point, I'm not only so optimistic about where we're at because of where the Giants were at in these last two games offensively, but also because of the injury situation, the Giants are going to come into this game as healthy as they've been,

basically this whole season with the expectation that Dory Jackson will be back, was Xavier McKinney playing again with the expectation that Ojo Lari, it's fine. He just needed a week off for that basketball injury as they called it and he'll be good to go. Leonard Williams, he's not going to be perfect. He's playing through a big injury this year, but he's going to be fresher and better with that week off.

Barkley, going to be fresher.

Having a week off, you don't going to be perfect. He's playing through a big injury this year, but he's going to be fresher and better with that week off.

Barkley, going to be fresher.

Having a week off, you don't need him taking hits and grinding out a game right here.

You give him the two weeks.

And so healthier, they're clicking as far as they have, you know, as best as they have.

And one other thing is after watching today, and, you you know part of this probably nick is the fact that eagles may have took their foot off the gas pedal and not game plan that hard against the

giants because they were well aware giants were going to play their starters on defense and by the way

brian dable went you know music to my ears nick he went all out in this thing he didn't play a single

starter he didn't risk anything he didn't risk a single injury. He didn't risk anything. He didn't risk a single

injury in this game. And maybe the Eagles think game plan. But the third factor for me right now is, look, the Eagles didn't look that great today on offense against second string giants. The NFC field, if it's not for the Eagles, the NFC feels wide open. Sure, the Niners are a great team. They also of Brock Purdy in the playoffs. A rookie making, like,

rookie can make mistakes in the playoffs.

And I don't necessarily trust Brock Purdy to just

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