A Look at the Giants: Giants Could Clinch a Playoff Spot This Week

Towards the end of the NFL season I always check out CBS Sportsline's Clinching/Eliminating scenarios for the week. I was shocked today to see the Giants appear on the list as one of the teams that could clinch a spot this week (this was especially true after playing around with ESPN's awesome Playoff Machine and finding out there are scenarios that the Giants could win 11 games and not make the playoffs). So there's a chance the Steve Smith-less Giants we talked about earlier could find their way into the postseason in Week 15. Here's the scenario:

Mario Manningham and the Giants could clinch a spot (MSNBC)

NY Giants clinch a playoff spot:
1) NYG win + CHI loss + GB loss + TB loss + NYG clinch strength of victory tiebreaker over Tampa Bay

Ok, simple enough, right? Well...no.

NOTE: The explanation of the NYG tiebreaker is as follows:
If CHI and GB both lose, then if GB finishes 10-6 they win the North (beat CHI h2h in Wk 17 and would split h2h, finish tied in division and common opponents and would have better conference record because CHI would be losing to MIN this week). So since CHI could not finish ahead of NYG in tiebreaker with a h2h loss and at best 7-5 conference record, that would mean three teams in South would have to beat out Giants -- and if Giants clinch SOV over TB that would be impossible

And...the WORST CASE SCENARIO for NYG is a tie in strength of victory (SOV) tiebreaker with TB.

Ok, so what does that mean for this week? Well, besides the Giants beating the Eagles, Minnesota beating the Bears, New England beating the Packers and Detroit beating the Bucs?

That means, to clinch SOV this week, NYG only needs ONE of the following to occur:
- SD win/tie over SF (Thurs night)
- KC win/tie over STL
- HOU win/tie over TEN
- DAL win/tie over WAS
- JAC win/tie over IND
- BAL win/tie over NO

Well, I guess the Giants have a rooting interest tonight: you need to root for Philip Rivers and the Chargers to beat the 49ers. It shouldn't be a hard task, but it would mean that all the Giants would have to do is beat the Eagles this week...and then have the Packers, Bears and Bucs all lose. That's it.

But hey, there's still a chance!