NFC East News
Redskins - The Redskins moved into first place in the NFC East with a 38-21 win against the Browns.
Cowboys - Roethlisberger's interception in OT led to a field goal that gave the Cowboys a 27-24 win.

Game 14 Preview - Giants (8-5) vs Falcons (11-2)
Last Sunday, with a big boost by David Wilson who scored three times, the Giants put up more points then they ever had under Tom Coughlin's coaching regime. They finished with a 52-27 win over the Saints to maintain their lead, knowing all the teams in the NFC East had won their games played earlier.
The Falcons came up with only 35 yards of offense in the first half of their game and soon found themselves behind 23-0 to the Panthers. That was too much of a lead to overcome. The final score was 30-20 as they sustained only their second loss of the year, with both coming from their division rivals in the NFC South.
The Falcons gave the Browns five picks just to get Julio Jones a year ago. He cost them their 1st- (27th overall), second- (59th) and fourth-round (124th) picks and their first- and fourth-round picks in 2012. Jones led the rookie class with 8 touchdown catches in his first year and in the playoff game with the Giants he caught 7 of 8 balls tossed his way for a 9.1 average with 2 first downs and he ran 13 yards once for another.

Dec 16 Ahmad Bradshaw lobbied all week long. Even as he missed three straight days of practice. Even as he and his sprained left knee hobbled around the Giants' East Rutherford practice facility, looking even to the casual observer in no shape to play today at Atlanta.
In his first NFL start, rookie RB David Wilson must focus on corralling his need for speed. "Sometimes, if you're not careful, (running backs) are fast all the time," Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride says. "And 'fast all the time' doesn't usually translate into success."
The player with the most difficult job of all today might be Jerrel Jernigan, who lines up in front of David Wilson on kickoff returns and, if he deems it necessary, has the responsibility of holding Wilson in the end zone.

The sack numbers have not been as lofty as anticipated this season for a pass rush considered one of the NFL's best, leading the New York Post to place Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul on milk cartons suggesting they were "missing" in October. But Umenyiora and his teammates up front still believe they are feared by the opposition.

It did not take Eli Manning long to study the Falcons' defense and spot an area the Giants quarterback does not want to challenge: The ability of the two starting safeties to play the ball in the air. Thomas DeCoud (five interceptions) and William Moore (four) have combined for more than half of the Falcons' 16 picks this season.

The game features two of the best receiving tandems in the league: Cruz and Hakeem Nicks for the Giants (8-5), and White and Julio Jones for the Falcons (11-2). "We're a better group than them," White said in that NFL Network interview back in September. "I am not taking shots at people. Victor Cruz is a lot more of a slot receiver. The big boys play on the outside."

The Giants will have then defended their NFC East title and could be returning to Atlanta next month to play in the divisional round of the playoffs. This is money time in the NFL. This is when the Giants usually flip it into another gear.
The Giants, who face the Atlanta Falcons' fourth-ranked passing attack, bolstered their secondary by signing cornerback Terrence Frederick off their practice squad. If he plays, Frederick will make his NFL debut.

Matt Ryan and the Falcons would love to avenge January's 24-2 playoff humiliation at MetLife Stadium, and make a loud statement against a foe they will use as a measuring stick. "Who hasn't used it against us?" David Baas said. "You think San Francisco thought the same thing? They were mad about the NFC Championship game. You think we care?"

Martellus Bennett often reflects on what could have happened had he taken a different path to professional athletics. When NBA highlights flash across the television screen, the Giants' tight end, whose knack for storytelling matches his physical gifts on the football field, is quick to point out what might have been on the hardwood.

The Giants and Jets announced they will wear a decal on their helmets in memory of the lives lost in the tragic mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school on Friday morning. All Giants players will have the initials S.H.E.S. (Sandy Hook Elementary School) on the back of their helmets for their 1 p.m. game against the Atlanta Falcons.

Dec 15 The news was expected, but nevertheless jolting. The Giants Friday officially ruled out starting running back Ahmad Bradshaw for tomorrow's showdown against the 11-2 Atlanta Falcons, due to sprained left knee he sustained last week.
The Giants will turn to rookie David Wilson and a pair of veterans who have been on the team less than a month in Kregg Lumpkin and Ryan Torain. Lumpkin and Torain each don't even have a carry this season.

Thirteen games into the regular season, when many bruised and battered players must will themselves onto the field, the Giants hope the fresh legs of running back David Wilson can help carry them into the playoffs.
Maybe it was the order from Justin Tuck, or the warning from general manager Jerry Reese, or the concern several of his teammates expressed. But Giants rookie running back David Wilson said on ESPN's SportsCenter that he'll no longer use his backflip touchdown celebration.

Last week's 52-point explosion came against a woeful New Orleans defense. Atlanta's defense is not all that great either. The Giants should be able to move the ball and dictate terms, especially if they can run the ball.
Here are the Giants keys to victory as the team takes on the Falcons Sunday:
1) Poise in the noise. 2) Field position. 3) Time of possession. 4) Limit big plays. 5) Win the turnover battle. 6) Red zone defense. 7) Green zone offense. 8) Fast start. 9) Limit penalties. 10) Wrap up.

Every week Giants tight end Martellus Bennett watches film of the upcoming opponent, studying its defense to detect any tendencies. That's not uncommon. What is unique is Bennett will often track down film of Tony Gonzalez to see what tidbit he can learn from the Falcons veteran tight end.

Dec 14 This season, the Falcons have allowed just 24 sacks of Matt Ryan, seventh-fewest in the NFL. But that may just be the product of Ryan getting rid of the ball just in the nick of time because he's been hit 66 times overall, tied for ninth-most in the league.
The Atlanta Falcons offensive line came into its playoff game against the Giants in January with a reputation for dirty play. Since then the Falcons have fired their offensive line coach and apparently cleaned up their act.

Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell came to his players' defense Thursday. "It took a lot for them to do what I asked them to do last week. It wasn't the most sack-friendly game (plan) for them, but it was the way we felt like we had to win that football game." When asked to be more specific about the plan, Fewell said, "I won't reveal that. It's a game-plan thing."

Here is the way Michael Boley views what the Falcons are all about, and he should know, considering he spent the first four years of his career playing in Atlanta: "You got to look at it," Boley said. "Just like last week before their game when you got a team that's 3-9 calling your team out, that's not a lot of respect at all."

No one can question the Giants' Super Bowl credentials with two championships in the past five seasons, but they are far from a lock to be in the playoffs with a one-game lead over the Redskins and Cowboys in the NFC East. For the second straight year that division may only send one team to the postseason, and you could not blame the rest of the NFC if they were quietly rooting for the Falcons to clear the path for Dallas and Washington.

Kevin Gilbride is hopeful he has Ahmad Bradshaw on Sunday against Atlanta. But the offensive coordinator didn't sound too optimistic on Thursday about that happening with Bradshaw nursing a sprained knee and looking unlikely to play Sunday. Gilbride cautioned that the Giants would like to see David Wilson do some more things better.
In addition to Wilson's likely promotion to starter, Kregg Lumpkin and Ryan Torain, both of whom signed with the Giants on Nov. 27 after Andre Brown broke his leg and was placed on temporary injured reserve, will need to be ready for a potentially bigger role as well.

If Prince Amukamara can't start, Jayron Hosley will play a critical role on Sunday. The Falcons are fourth in the NFL in passing yards (289.2 yards per game), and feature arguably the best wide receiver tandem in the league in Roddy White (77 catches, 1,140 yards, 5 TDs) and Julio Jones (63 catches, 997 yards, 7 TDs).
Go ahead Matt Ryan, throw Jayron Hosley's way. The little rookie cornerback who doesn't seem to know he's a little rookie cornerback becomes a big Giant in Atlanta Sunday when he steps in for Prince Amukamara opposite Corey Webster. The task is all the more daunting if Roddy White, who will be a gametime decision (knee), gets the green light to wreak more havoc alongside Julio Jones.'

NFC East News
Eagles - Bengals force 5 turnovers, rout sloppy Eagles 34-13.

Dec 13 The Falcons are 11-2, the best record in the NFC and tied with the Texans for the best record in the NFL. But they're rarely mentioned as Super Bowl contenders -- not nearly as often as teams with less glitzy records, like the Giants (8-5).
These are strange times for the Atlanta Falcons, who unlike the rest of the NFC are just waiting around for the playoffs to start. It seems everyone regards them as fakes, particularly after their no-show at Carolina, which explains why Tom Coughlin keeps filling Blue minds with his usual tedious pleas of maintaining focus.

This year's "Hop on the Energy Bus" could be last year's "All in," two more entries in the long list of quick verbal strikes that Coughlin will repeat over and over again. With Sunday's crucial game against NFC-leading Atlanta looming, Coughlin has been reiterating his description of this post-bye stretch as the Giants' "second season," as well as the fact his players can control their own playoff fates because "Destiny is a matter of choice.

After going missing for a while the fade, the Giants' Go-To Play, is back. Some receivers, like Hixon, prefer a pass thrown over their outside shoulder, as was the case for his diving touchdown against the Saints. Taller receivers, such as Barden, are better at catching jump-balls thrown to the inside shoulder, while Nicks excels at catching so-called back-shoulder fades, where the quarterback underthrows the pass and allows the receiver to come back for it.

Reporters swarm around the same players every week in the Giants locker room. The quarterback, Eli Manning, always has a big crowd around him when he talks. Defensive end Justin Tuck draws a large group, too -- as does safety Antrel Rolle. On Wednesday, the media had a new target: rookie running back David Wilson.
This has become David Wilson week around the Giants. On Sunday, he scored three touchdowns and set team and NFL records in a 52-27 beatdown of the New Orleans Saints. Then Wilson was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week, the first Giants kickoff returner to be so honored in 18 years.

Justin Tuck, the captain of the Giants defense, had a very direct message for rookie running back David Wilson, in regard to those backflips Wilson likes to do as his touchdown celebrations. "I told him to stop doing them," Tuck said.
When asked if he had a problem with the backflips, coach Tom Coughlin said: "Next question." Informed Reese might have told Wilson to stop doing the backflips, Coughlin added, "You're not going to get me on that one."

NFL News
Do we want to see .500 teams (or worse) regularly granted entrance into the NFL playoffs? Commissioner Roger Goodell revealed Wednesday that the league's competition committee will explore expanding the postseason field, and that could mean a heaping helping of mediocrity on wild-card weekend. "We'll look at probably 14 or 16 teams," he said.

Dec 12 The Giants don't need to beat just any opponent this Sunday, they need to beat the 11-2 Falcons. And they won't face just any pair of receivers, they'll face Roddy White and Julio Jones, who many consider the best tandem in the league.

This Golden Age of Giants football has been built most notably and impressively on two overwhelming ingredients: huge plays in the passing game from Eli Manning and his receivers and a ferocious, relentless pass rush. Neither asset has been great this season.

It was against the Falcons that the Giants started their playoff march to the Super Bowl by suffocating Atlanta 24-2 in a wild-card game at MetLife Stadium last January. The Giants smothered Matt Ryan, sacking him twice and holding him to 199 yards passing and no touchdowns. Michael Turner rushed for just 41 yards as Atlanta managed only 64 yards total on the ground. Antrel Rolle says hunting season will continue in Atlanta on Sunday for the dogs in blue.

In a radio interview on ESPN 98.7 this afternoon, Osi Umenyiora was asked if the Patriots (10-3) are the NFL's best team after their 42-14 rout of the Texans (11-2) Monday night. Umenyiora conceded New England is playing the best right now, but not that they are the league's top team. That distinction, he believes, belongs to the Giants.

Speed and vision contributed to David Wilson's breakout performance on Sunday. But it was the blocking that tipped the scales toward a record-breaking night against the Saints. His teammates opened up the holes, and Wilson's talents took over for 327 all-purpose yards.

Former Giants
Brandon Jacobs is filing an official grievance with the 49ers. He has been filing unofficial grievances with them for weeks - on Twitter and on Instagram, saying, "I am on this team rotting away."

NFL News
Paul Tagliabue, in a surprising rebuke of his successor as NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, vacated the suspensions of four players involved in a bounty scandal that has roiled the New Orleans Saints for more than nine months.

Dec 11 Tom Coughlin was in a good mood Monday, and it's easy to see why after his team crushed the Saints, 52-27 on Sunday. Here are some things Coughlin liked and didn't like after reviewing the game tape.
Tom Coughlin said wide receiver Hakeem Nicks will have to play through pain and will not be 100 percent for the remainder of the season. Nicks underwent X-rays after Sunday's victory and he said everything came out clean.

There's not a team above the Giants in the NFC or right below them in the NFC East that they haven't defeated in the last 12 months. During that time, they've beaten the Cowboys three times, the Packers and 49ers twice and the Redskins and Falcons once. They get another shot at the top-seeded Falcons on Sunday in Atlanta as the serious season of jockeying for playoff position has officially begun.
If there is any team capable of becoming the first to successfully defend its crown since the Patriots in the 2004 season, it is this one. I'm aware of the treacherous three-game schedule that confronts the Giants, as well as their well-documented history of second-half collapses under Tom Coughlin on occasions other than Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. But I'm shoving my chips to the middle of the table - this team is going to the playoffs.

David Wilson's breakout performance Sunday afternoon couldn't have come at a better time - for a couple reasons. The most pertinent is fellow running back Ahmad Bradshaw's continued health problems.
Running back David Wilson and offensive lineman Jim Cordle couldn't be any more different. One is a smallish scat back runner who's lighting-quick while the other is a big bulky lineman who would have his troubles in a footrace. However, the one thing both men have in common is that at one point this season, their actions cost their team a game. This week, both men found redemption on the same field, against the same team.

The Giants have a defense that did not let a prolific Saints offense, the best in the NFL in the red zone, enter the end zone more than twice Sunday evening. They have a defense that took the ball away four times. The Giants also have a defense that gave up five plays of 20 yards or more in that same game, including passes of 62 and 44 yards.
What is clear is the Giants do not go about their defensive business in a conventional manner. Remember how utterly dominant they were in the 24-2 beat-down of the Falcons in last season's NFC divisional playoff game? The Giants have turned into a bend-but-don't-break type defense, which is not the intention.

Former Giants
Brandon Jacobs was suspended for rest of regular season after saying he's 'rotting away' with San Francisco 49ers. In recent days, he posted a series of photos of himself playing for the Giants - and even a picture of his two Super Bowl championship rings, side by side.
Brandon Jacobs sustained a knee injury in the preseason and wasn't active until Week 12 against the Saints. Jacobs, a fourth-round pick in 2005, is fourth on the Giants' all-time rushing list with 4,849 yards and first in touchdowns with 56, one ahead of Tiki Barber.
Chad Jones still isn't giving up. Back from brink of death, ex-Giant eyes comeback. Monday he had a workout with the Philadelphia Eagles who were checking him out as a potential signing for next season.