POSTED: Tuesday January 6th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GIANTS NOTEBOOK, JANUARY 6, 2009

By Michael Eisen

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants will have history both on their side and working against them when they open postseason play Sunday at home against the Philadelphia Eagles.

 

With their 12-4 regular season record and overtime victory over Carolina on Dec. 21, the Giants earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. The Eagles are seeded sixth and advanced to the divisional round with a 26-14 victory Sunday in Minnesota.

 

Since the NFL began seeding the playoff teams in each conference in 1990, a top seed has hosted a sixth seed 11 times. The No. 1 seeds are 10-1, including 9-0 in the NFC. The only defeat suffered by a top seed occurred three years ago, when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated their Indianapolis Colts on their way to victory in Super Bowl XXL. Last year, the Giants duplicated the Steelers’ feat of winning three road games on the way to the Super Bowl. In the process, they became the first No. 5 seed to defeat a No. 1 in the NFC when they won in Dallas.

 

But the Giants must overcome some other history if they are to win back-to-back championships for the first time in their history (and the 18th time in NFL history). No NFC team has repeated as Super Bowl champions since the 1992-93 Dallas Cowboys. Denver (1997-98) and New England (2003-2004) did it in the AFC. The last NFC team to make consecutive Super Bowl appearances was the Green Bay Packers in 1996-97.

 

The fate of No. 1 seeds is additional proof of how unpredictable the postseason can be. Only three of the NFC’s 18 top seeds from 1990 through 2007 won the Super Bowl: Washington in 1991, Dallas in 1993 and St. Louis in 1999. Seven more lost the Super Bowl, including the Giants in 2000. In the AFC, six No. 1 seeds have won the Super Bowl, most recently New England in 2003. Of course, the Patriots were also last year’s top AFC team and they lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

 

The tops seeds in the NFC and AFC have made the Super Bowl in the same season just twice – in 1991 and 1993. Both times, the NFC East was represented. Washington beat Buffalo in 1991, and Dallas defeated the Bills two years later.

 

*The Giants-Eagles game will be the 36th playoff meeting between division rivals since 1990. The home, or higher-seeded, teams are 22-13.

 

This will be the 11th time since 1990 two division rivals will face each other in the postseason after the visiting team won each of the two regular season games. The home team is 6-4 in the playoffs. The last time it happened was in 2006. The teams? The Giants and the Eagles. After winning in overtime early in the season in Lincoln Financial Field, the Giants returned for a Wild Card Game and lost, 23-20, on David Akers’ field goal as time expired.

 

The Giants and Eagles will be just the second pair of division foes to meet in the postseason three times since 1990. AFC East rivals Buffalo and Miami (1990, ‘95 and ‘98) are the others). The Giants defeated the Eagles here, 20-10, in a 2000 NFC Divisional Playoff Game.

 

*The Giants are participating in their record 30th postseason. Dallas is second at 29 playoff appearances. This is the first time the Giants have played in four consecutive postseasons and the first time they followed up a Super Bowl appearance with a playoff berth.

 

Last year’s four-game postseason winning streak improved the Giants’ playoff record to 20-23. They are 13-9 at home (including the three Super Bowls in which they were the home team).

 

Sunday’s victory in Minnesota improved Philadelphia’s postseason record to 18-17.

 

*The Giants-Eagles game will match two of the NFL’s five winningest active coaches in Tom Coughlin and Andy Reid (now that Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan are currently unemployed). Coughlin is fourth on the career list among active coaches with 123 victories (115 in the regular season, eight in the postseason). Reid is fifth with 106 victories (97 in the regular season, nine in the playoffs). Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy and Jeff Fisher are the three winningest active coaches.

 

*Further proof that the Giants’ season was extremely difficult: Seven teams other than the Giants remain alive in the playoffs. The Giants have beaten five of them: Philadelphia, Carolina and Arizona in the NFC and Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the AFC.

 

*The Giants are 5-2 in postseason games following a bye since the 1970 merger. The only losses were the 1989 divisional playoff game to the Los Angeles Rams in overtime and to Baltimore in Super Bowl XXXV.

 

*The Giants were one of six new division winners this season, joining Arizona, Carolina, Miami, Minnesota and Tennessee. That tied the 2003 season for the most such clubs since realignment was instituted in 2002.

 

* The Giants are the fourth defending Super Bowl champion to earn a top seed in the postseason a year after winning the championship game (since seeding began in 1990). In addition, they are only the seventh Super Bowl participant to earn a No. 1 seed the next year.

 

Two of the defending champions that earned a top seed repeated as champions.

 

Teams that played in the Super Bowl and earned a top seed play seed the following season:

Season                        Team                          Result

1990                San Francisco*            Lost NFC Championship Game

1991                Buffalo                        Lost Super Bowl XXVI

1993                Dallas*                        Won Super Bowl XXVIII

1993                Buffalo                        Lost Super Bowl XVIII

1998                Denver*                      Won Super Bowl XXXIII

2000                Tennessee                    Lost Divisional Playoff

2008                Giants                          ?????????????

 

*Super Bowl champion

 

*The Giants and Eagles were the only two NFL teams to be ranked in the top nine in both offense and defense in the 2008 regular season. The Giants were ranked seventh offensively (355.9 yards a game) and fifth defensively (292.0). Philadelphia’s offense was ranked ninth (350.5) and its defense third (274.3).

 

*Due to the limited number of parking spaces near Giants Stadium, the Giants and the NJSEA are urging fans who attend Sunday’s game to carpool and use mass transit. Fans are reminded that only those ticket holders with pre-paid parking permits will be allowed on the sports complex grounds. Those fans without parking permits will be directed to satellite parking and take shuttle busses to Giants Stadium.

# # #

Keywords · New York Giants · NFL

Name: Avis Roper
Organization: New York Giants
Email:
Phone: +1. 201-935-8111
URL: http://www.giants.com/

Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.