Giants title defense won't be easy
If the Giants are going to repeat as Super Bowl champions, the NFL is going to make them earn it.
The defending champions will finish the 2012 season with a brutal six-game stretch that features four games against 2011 playoff teams and two divisional games. In that stretch they’ll play host to two of the biggest threats to their NFC crown — the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints — and finish the season on Dec. 30 at home against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“As always, we face a very challenging schedule,” Tom Coughlin said. “To get where we want to go you have to play the best teams in football and we certainly are playing the best teams.”
The Giants’ schedule includes seven games against 2011 playoff teams – four from the NFC (vs. Green Bay, vs. New Orleans, at Atlanta, at San Francisco) and three from the AFC (at Baltimore, vs. Pittsburgh, at Cincinnati). Starting with a Week 6 rematch of the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco (Oct. 14) the Giants’ final 11 games are all against either playoff teams or NFC East opponents.
And not surprisingly, the defending champs will be in prime time five times, including the previously announced opener at home on Wednesday, Sept. 5 against the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants will play three of their first four games in prime time, including a Week 3 Thursday night game in Carolina (Sept. 20) and a Week 4 Sunday night game in Philadelphia (Sept. 30).
The Giants also have a Sunday night home game scheduled against the Packers in Week 12 (Nov. 25), though that game is subject to the NFL’s flexible scheduling rules. And in Week 13 the Giants make their lone Monday Night Football appearance in Washington on Dec. 3.
Their bye week is late — Week 11 (Sunday, Nov. 18), which Coughlin said he likes “because it’s closer to the middle of the season.” It also gives the Giants a week off before their brutal, six-week stretch run against the Packers, at Washington, home against the Saints (Dec. 9), at Atlanta, at Baltimore (Dec. 23) and home against the Eagles.
“We will have a week-in and week-out challenge, not only in who we play, but with the different elements of our schedule,” Coughlin said. “We play on four different days and we have five night games. Our first three games are Wednesday-Sunday-Thursday. We play two road night games early, come home for a week and then go to San Francisco. Our people are going to have to be really good about it.”
This article was written by Ralph Vacchiano and appeared in the New York Daily News.
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