The Giants won’t play the Eagles until Week 12 this season, and they like it that way.
The animosity will continue to build. Joe Judge’s team will fight through a challenging road schedule against some of the NFL’s best teams.
And when they come out the other side, four of their final seven games will come against NFC East rivals, including two against the team that tanked its Week 17 finale to keep the 6-10 Giants out of last season’s playoffs.
“For the league, I always think that’s a great thing to end the season with division games,” Joe Judge said in a statement Wednesday night. “It keeps a lot of parity in what you’re doing, and it keeps a lot of competition down the stretch. I do like the way the league structures that, so you play a significant amount of your division games toward the end of the season.”
The Giants have to get there in good enough shape for those games to matter, though, and that won’t be easy given Big Blue’s 17-game slate in the NFL’s expanded regular season format.
Their three prime-time games all will be on the road against division champion Washington and last year’s two Super Bowl teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The trip to Washington will be a Thursday Night tilt in Week 2 on a short week after the Giants’ season opener hosting the Denver Broncos.
In Week 11 the Giants will travel to Tampa. Then after hosting the Eagles in Week 12, the Giants will play back-to-back on the road at the Miami Dolphins and L.A. Chargers.
“That west coast trip against the Chargers, is that after a home game or is it a back-to-back away game, as it ended up being for us. You start mapping out the best way to do it for your team,” Judge said of how he examines the schedule throughout the spring.
“We try to find as many times that we have an opportunity to tell the players, ‘This really the same as we’ve already done,’” Judge added. “And show them it’s a pattern of how the week’s going to go and how we’re going to prepare.”
Judge’s Giants finished 6-10 in his first season as head coach after a 1-7 start. They’re determined this year to take the next step.
And after no preseason games last year, the Giants’ three exhibitions could provide some fireworks this year, too, including a Week 2 preseason game at Cleveland, where old friend Odell Beckham Jr. should be healthy and back on the field.
The Giants’ pent-up fury toward the Eagles will build toward two must-see matchups on the heels of Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively. Philly tanked last season’s Week 17 finale to hand Washington the division and traded over the Giants to take Alabama wideout DeVonta Smith last month. The Giants might need that Week 12 win badly, too, sandwiched between road games at the Bucs and Dolphins.
Facing Matthew Stafford’s Rams, Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs and Tom Brady’s Bucs in a five-game span will show Judge what his team is made of. A close second would be the stretch from Weeks 11-14 that includes road games at Tampa, Miami and the L.A. Chargers, including back to back from Florida to California.
It’s not exactly easy, but the Giants have an opportunity to get off to a fast start if the Broncos, Washington, Falcons and Saints all throw mediocre quarterbacks at Pat Graham’s defense.
Week 1: (Sept. 12) vs. Broncos, 4:25 pm, FOX
Week 2: (Sept. 16) at Washington, Thursday Night Football, 8:20 pm, NFLN
Week 3: (Sept. 26) vs. Falcons, 1 pm, FOX
Week 4: (Oct. 3) at Saints, 1 pm, FOX
Week 5: (Oct. 10) at Cowboys, 4:25 pm, FOX
Week 6: (Oct. 17) vs. Rams, 1 pm, FOX
Week 7: (Oct. 24) vs. Panthers, 1 pm, FOX
Week 8: (Nov. 1) at Chiefs, Monday Night Football, 8:15 pm, ESPN
Week 9: (Nov. 7) vs. Raiders, 1 pm, CBS
Week 10: BYE
Week 11: (Nov. 22) at Bucs, Monday Night Football, 8:15 pm, ESPN
Week 12: (Nov. 28) vs. Eagles, 1 pm, FOX
Week 13: (Dec. 5) at Dolphins, 1 pm, FOX
Week 14: (Dec. 12) at Chargers, 4:05 pm, FOX
Week 15: (Dec. 19) vs. Cowboys, 1 pm, FOX
Week 16: (Dec. 26) at Eagles, 1 pm, FOX
Week 17: (Jan. 2) at Bears, 1 pm, CBS
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Week 18: (Jan. 9) vs. Washington, 1 pm, FOX
Preseason Schedule (dates and times TBD)
Week 1: (Aug. 12-16) vs. Jets
Week 2: (Aug. 19-23) at Browns
Week 3: (Aug. 26-30) vs. Patriots