We have gone through sixteen weeks in the 2016 NFL season and now we are on the road to the Super Bowl as it begins on Saturday between the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Texans. However, the game that will probably garner a ton of viewers is the final game of the weekend between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. This is the third time that both of these teams are facing each other in the playoffs, they faced each other in 2007 and 2011. It should be noted that those happened to be the two years that the New York Giants would go on to win the Super Bowls.
[Jon]
Let us first look at the New York Giants. They are coming into this game with a record of 11-5 and owned the #5 seed. After starting the season off with a record of 4-3 prior to the bye week, they would end up going 7-2 to close out the season. It should be noted that towards the end of the 2016 NFL regular-season was when the Giants secondary started playing great with Jenkins and Collins really leading the pack. However, the entire defense played well from Oliver Vernon to Jason Pierre Paul (prior to his injury), to Damion Harrison. While the defense is what got the Giants to where they are, the offense was good at moments. In order for the Giants to begin another run at a Super Bowl win, there offense needs to play great. Also and this is extremely key, Eli Manning can not make mental mistakes in the red zone and give the Packers free opportunities with the ball. Also they need to keep running the ball like they have towards the end of the season. Over the last couple of weeks, the Giants running game started to pick up with Paul Perkins, who ended up averaging the second most yards per attempt with 4.1 (Shane Vereen had 4.8 yards per attempt).
On the other side, you have the Green Bay Packers. They are coming into this game with a record of 10-6 and winners of the NFC North after they defeated the Detroit Lions by the score of 31-24 on Sunday Night Football in Week 17. There is always that one team that you don’t want to face in the NFL playoffs and the Packers happen to be that team. They are entering this playoff game currently riding a six game winning streak and seeing their franchise QB Aaron Rodgers play some of the best football he has played in quite some time. To put in perspective as to how well Aaron Rodgers has played, he has not thrown an interception during this six-game winning streak. He has thrown eighteen touchdowns over the last few weeks.
While the Packers are playing well right now, I see the Giants winning here and setting up Cowboys/Giants Round 3. The Packers have a weak secondary and with the Giants having the weapons on Sterling Sheppard, Victor Cruz, and Odell Beckhem Jr; Eli Manning and the offense should be able to exploit that part very fast in the game. My big thing to watch for in this game will be the fact that you have two coaches in Mike McCarthy and Ben McAdoo who are very familiar with each other.
If you would like the information of where you can watch the game online, here it is:
Date: Sunday, January 8, 2017
Time: 4:40 pm
Online: www.foxsportsgo.com
Radio: www.wmtj.com (Green Bay Packers Radio), www.wfan.radio.net ( New York Giants Radio)
Current betting odds:
Packers are favorite by 5 over the New York Giants