The Giants’ long awaited return to the playoffs has them traveling to Minnesota this weekend to take on the Vikings in one of the National Football Conference’s three wild card games to open the playoffs. The American Football Conference also has three games to feed the voracious appetite sports fans in this country have for football.
The Giants (9-7-1), the NFCs No. 6 seed, lost a gripping 27-24 Christmas Eve road battle against the Vikings (13-4), who are the NFC North champions and No. 3 seed. The contest ended on Vikings kicker Greg Joseph’s franchise record 61-yard field goal as time expired. Three weeks later, Sunday’s 4:30 p.m. rematch has much more significance and the Giants enter the game supremely confident they can win their first postseason game since February 5, 2012, when they upset the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI (46).
The Giants’ last playoff appearance was a 38-13 wild card game loss on January 8, 2017, to the Green Bay Packers. They have a far better chance this time around, knowing their opponent experientially after last month’s hard-fought matchup in which quarterback Daniel Jones threw for a season-high 334 yards. The Giants exploited weaknesses in the Vikings’ secondary but Minnesota’s passing game lit them up in kind.
Superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson was unguardable. He had 12 receptions for 133 yards from QB Kirk Cousins, and talented tight end T.J. Hockenson pulled in 13 for 109. Preventing the trio from replicating such high production and minimizing the Vikings’ offensive efficiency in the red zone is undoubtedly high on Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll’s list of objectives.
If the Giants’ 25th-ranked defense (358.2 yards per game), which is No. 11 among the 14 playoff teams, can effectively pressure Cousins with a mix of a four-man front and the multiple blitz packages employed by defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, and force a turnover or two from the Vikings, it could be the game’s deciding factor.
The Giants’ offense should be able to approach or exceed their point total in the team’s Week 16 matchup facing the worst defense of all the playoff squads. The Vikings ended the regular season ranked 31st out of the NFL’s 32 clubs, allowing 388.7 yards per game—123.1 rushing and 265.6 passing. Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who, like most of the starters, sat out last Sunday’s regular season finale versus the Philadelphia Eagles (a 22-16 loss) to rest and avoid injury, finished fourth in the league in rushing yards with 1,312.
The eye-test and fundamental metrics conclude the Giants are in a promising position to exit Minnesota with a victory.