E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
Why wait?

The NFL schedule won't be released until later this afternoon, but why wait?

If you are like most fans, the release of the schedule is one of the three best stories of the off-season (the others being the Free Agent Period and the College Player Draft).

E-GIANTS has managed to obtain a copy of the Giants' schedule -- without starting times, in most cases -- a few hours early.

Here, then, is when the Giants will play this season as they attempt to defend their NFC East championship and their 11-5 record, while at the same time make a concentrated effort to get past the first round of the playoffs, or at least to score some points in a playoff game.

SEPTEMBER
10 -- Indianapolis, 8 p.m. ET
17 -- at Philadelphia
24 -- at Seattle

OCTOBER
  1 -- BYE
  8 -- Washington
15 -- at Atlanta
23 -- (Monday night) at Dallas
29 -- Tampa Bay

NOVEMBER
  5 -- Houston
12 -- Chicago
20 -- (Monday night) at Jacksonville
26 -- at Tennessee

DECEMBER
  3 -- Dallas
10 -- at Carolina
17 -- Philadelphia
24 -- New Orleans
30 -- (Saturday) at Washington

As you can see, the Giants' success in 2005 has plunged them head-first into prime time dates. They have two Monday night games (Oct. 23 in Dallas, Nov. 20 in Jacksonville), the opening Sunday night game of the season (Indianapolis, in the Manning Bowl) and a regular season ending Saturday game in Washington.

Keep in mind, as well, that this year the NFL is instituting a "flexible schedule" with an eye toward the best match-up for the new Sunday night package. The possibility of switching a Sunday afternoon game (1 p.m. or 4 p.m.) to Sunday night will be in effect from weeks 10-15 and again week 17.

This means the Giants' games against Chicago, Tennessee, Dallas, Carolina and Philadelphia are vulnerable to being switched. Since the new process affects only scheduled games for Sunday, the Giants' Monday night game in Jacksonville and Saturday game in Washington cannot be affected.

The schedule is not an easy one. Seven of their 13 opponents (they play Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington twice each) made it to the playoffs last season, and Seattle played in (and lost) Super Bowl XL.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

NEW - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!

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