Week off more vital than taking top seed
December 23
New York Post columnist Jay Greenberg
"After 15 games this season, Brandon Jacobs's knee and Jason Tuck's leg scream to them the value of the Giants' first-round playoff bye.
And history does, too. As good as the Giants feel about getting off the two-game schneid, rising to the Panthers' challenge and keeping themselves off any team plane until a flight to Tampa, the past provides strong evidence that the most important work Sunday already was done before they took the field.
Thanks to Atlanta's win at Minnesota, the Giants had the week off clinched. And the value of that runs far deeper than the potential right to host the NFC Championship game.
Since the institution of the current postseason format with the 1990 season, only 18 of the 36 No. 1 seeds made the Super Bowl and just eight of them won it. But of the 72 teams that earned first-round byes, 55 won their divisional round match to get to the conference title game.
So while the 2007 Giants and 2005 Steelers, who captured Super Bowls after three playoff road wins, may have proven all things plausible, getting hot doesn't have the same premium as getting rested, healthy, and ready.
The last No. 1 seed to win it all - and the only one in the last eight years - was the 2003 Patriots (beating the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII). The last time both conference No. 1 seeds made the Super Bowl was the 1993 season, when Dallas beat Buffalo. Only three times, however (in the 1995, 2003 and 2005 seasons) have as many as two of the four bye teams lost in the divisional round.
Either Tuck studied all this at Notre Dame or his leg hurts. Even if he could barely hold his head straight while fighting the flu and the Panthers on Sunday night, he already had his values straight.
"Other than (first-round bye) we don't care about the seeding," Tuck said. "We don't really care where we play, but the bye gives us an opportunity to get guys rested and guys in the training room back to 100 percent.
"That's huge for us to be able to make this run."
Of course, before that run begins, the Giants have to go to Minnesota on Sunday.
"If you believe, as we do, that you have to be playing your best football at this time of the year, you certainly have things to build on, particularly when you are not going to play for a couple of weeks," said coach Tom Coughlin, who asked for time to talk to Giants medical persons about any potential punches to pull Sunday. "
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