Big Game on Sunday

Sunday against the Panthers is an important game for the Giants.

Win and they're the No. 1 playoff seed in the NFC

Win and they secure an IMPORTANT first round bye.

Win and they have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

After the first 6 games of the year, the Giants - according Elias Sports Bureau - are the first team to play 10 straight games against teams with a winning record. That's a tough - as tough as any other team in NFL history - stretch there. And through eight of those games, the Giants have won 6 of 8. That's pretty good in my book. Despite how they've looked the last two games of the season.

You could say these 2 losses have to do with the loss of Plaxico Burress and I'll respond by saying it has more to do with the loss of Brandon Jacobs to his annual injury breakdown. The lose of Plax is definitely tough, but the team isn't running the ball like it did earlier in the season without Jacobs and the team has seemingly abandoned the run for long periods of times during the last 2 games. They haven't and aren't going to win games simply by depending on the pass.

Sure, the Giants haven't looked good in the last two games, but I'm confident that with Jacobs and a number of other starters coming back from injury - including Fred Robbins - that the Giants will beat the Panthers this Sunday night.

This is a BIG GAME.