The New York Giants (4-11) will play their final game of the 2019 season this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles (8-7), who will head to the postseason with a win this week as the NFC East champs. The Eagles will also win the division if the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Washington Redskins this week.
We know what the Eagles have to play for, but what about the Giants? They have won two straight and by pulling off an upset of Philly will have won three or more games in a row for the first time since 2016, when they won five in row from October 16-November 27.
Running back Saquon Barkley was asked what the Giants’ focus for this game could possibly be outside of simply being a spoiler.
“Let’s just go with, we want to finish the season off strong,” said Barkley. “That’s something that we’re focused on — finishing the season off strong. We have one more game to do it in front of the home crowd. That’s our mindset is to try to finish the season strong.”
And by knocking off the Eagles, a team that has beaten the Giants in 10 of the last 11 meetings, they will do just that.
Since Pat Shurmur took over the reins as head coach last year, the Giants have won just one game against a team with a winning record — a 30-27 overtime victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 13 last season.
A win could help Shumur save his job, something the players are aware of. Their recent success has been because the coaches may have finally gotten their act together, even though it might be too late to salvage their future.
The team hasn’t quit, which is an attestation that Shumur still has the full confidence of the team, something management will have to take into account when evaluating him after the season.
“It starts with him. He’s the one who sets the tone,” said Barkley. “You can tell by, not only him but all of the coaches, come to work every week— even though we’re having a, I wouldn’t say a disappointing season, but struggling year. It starts with those guys and it trickles down to us to the leaders and it trickles down, trickles down, trickles down. I think we’ve been displaying grit, fight, that effort in a lot of these games this year. But in these last two, it’s been working for us.”
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