Playoffs – The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Forgive my weekly Friday rants about the New York Giants, but it has been a pretty long span since the team's last playoff appearance.

That will all change Sunday afternoon at Met Life Stadium, the team's first playoff game at the new digs.

This has been as jeckyl and hyde of a season as you'll ever see, but as recent NFL has shown, once you're in the dance -- anything can happen.

I am an extremely realistic fan, who knows this particular team has a lot of flaws, especially running the ball and defending the pass.

After a few years of seeing the Jets and Eagles grab headlines in the area, it is just nice to see the Giants emerge from their post-Super Bowl slumber to be the talk of the town, at least for a weekend.

They draw a very dangerous Atlanta team.  The Falcon do not have the best road reputation, especially outdoors, but there is no denying the offensive talent they possess with Matt Ryan, Tony Gonzalez, Michael Turner, and receivers Julio Jones and Roddy White.

While I am extremely thankful the Giants will get at least this home game (so that I can attend), part of me wary of their play at home.  Last game versus Dallas and the "away" game against the Jets, notwithstanding, this team has not been very good nor consistent at Met Life Stadium.

The ups and downs of their play has some talking about the similarities of the Super Bowl season from a few years back, even down to the late-season home dud against the Redskins.

It is definitely enticing to get caught up in Super Bowl thoughts, and thinking back to that tremendous Super Bowl Run.  The fact is, though, this team needs to take it one game at a time in as loaded an NFC as you will ever see.

Also remember, in terms of the home game struggles, that the Giants have not fared so well in their last 2 home playoff games.  The Super Bowl, if you remember, was all done on the road.  New York hosted the Eagles in 2008, falling 23 to 11.  The previous home playoff before that was a 23-0 shutout by the Carolina Panthers.

All told, the Giants have not won a home playoff game since the NFC Championship game in 2000, which was a 41-0 thrashing of the Vikings to advance to the Super Bowl.

I apologize if I sound like Debbie Downer, but I am realistic in putting it out there that this team has some major demons to exorcise, both in their play this year and past home playoff performances.

The postives, however, are an offense that is putting up prolific numbers in the air while abandoning the usually reliable running game, and the reinvigorated defensive line that can be the game-changer in the playoffs.

Playoffs are such a fragile time because the build-up of each round is unmatched, but can be crushed in a three hour span, where you are left not feeling that it is the most wonderful time of the year.

It is just nice to have playoff football back at Giants err, I mean Met Life Stadium.  It is just nice to be able to dream of Super Bowl runs reminiscent of 2007.

And it just nice to see this team peaking at the right time.

Enjoy the weekend.  And if you are a Giants fan, enjoy the game.  I will post pictures and video from Sunday's game.