The season is on the line in week 12, and New York Giants fans may not want it any other way. With the division-leading Dallas Cowboys coming into town, Big Blue has one last chance to stave off playoff elimination, while also bringing down a hated rival.
The G-Men are already facing long odds to turn their season around at 3-7, but if they are to go on one of their magical late-season runs, it will have to start this week. Even if the playoffs are no longer on the table, playing spoiler against the ‘Boys could prove to be a minor consolation prize.
Giants and Cowboys games are never taken lightly in New York, which is why it’s not surprising to see Giants tickets still carry a solid price of $295.95 on average this week, as well as $90 to get in according to TiqIQ. It’s actually still a bit of a value considering the matchup, although this one does come in about $100 more than New York’s average ticket price on the season. That can be partially due to an increase in demand for tickets from Dallas fans looking to head east to see the Cowboys in enemy territory. Currently, Himpunk’s best hotels close to MetLife Stadium start at just $100/night so it certainly won’t cost much to stay near the stadium. And fans can save even more money a little further away from MetLife with hotels near Newark Liberty International Airport starting at under $70/night. Hipmunk is unique from other travel sites in that it also offer’s Airbnb listings which begin $35/night and can literally cut your hotel costs in half.
That could be just fine with New York fans in the end, especially if Eli Manning and co. can regroup enough to top the Cowboys at home.
It’s going to be harder than they think, though, as the Giants’ league worst run defense will certainly have it’s hands full against the game’s top rusher, DeMarco Murray. With 100+ rushing yards in every game but one this year, Murray will be fed the rock early and often and could be the deciding factor in this game.
That is, of course, unless the hometown Giants don’t pound the rock with Rashad Jennings, first. If the G-Men can get back to what helped them to a 3-2 start and run the ball effectively, Manning could execute the offense better and help take some pressure off of an inconsistent defense. Manning will also need to avoid turnovers; something he wasn’t able to do last week (five interceptions) and has struggled with overall the past two seasons.
We’ve seen this Giants team put together some solid showings, however, while they’ve been at their best at MetLife Stadium, with two of their three wins coming in front of their home crowd.
While this looks like the end of the road for the Giants, it could easily be just the beginning. A big win over the Cowboys this week could propel a six-game run to close out the year at 9-7. With two more divisional showdowns (vs. Redskins and Eagles) as well as three other contests against teams with losing records (Titans, Rams and Jaguars), New York isn’t as far away from a turn around as some may think.
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