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Giants - Lions
Game 6 preview

Sun Oct 24, 1:00 pm (FOX) - Detroit at Giants

Giants after the bye week.
The Giants should be well rested now after their bye week which was instituted in 1990, unless they stayed up late to watch all the hot baseball playoff action like many fans did. The Giants are 3-12 after bye weeks, including being 1-6 under former coach Jim Fassel since there were two bye weeks in 1993. That puts them at losing 7 of their last 8 games coming off the bye week.
Last outing, the Giants made it 4 straight wins beating Dallas in their own house. The Cowboys were coming off their bye week, and Bill Parcells said after the game that he was not impressed at all with his teams efforts.

Tom Coughlin after the bye week.
Luckily, Giants fans, you have Tom Coughlin as the head coach of your football team, and he's not one to put up with any post-bye week blues. Said Michael Strahan talking about the head coach, "This past week was the first time during the bye week we ever put on full pads, or pads, period. One thing [Coughlin] wasn't going to lose sight of was the fact you're not going to go home and think, 'Oh, I feel great, I haven't really hit anybody in two weeks.' No, he made sure we hit last week and made sure we stayed on form. Maybe that will carry over and help us this weekend."
Tom Coughlin was 5-3 coming off the bye week with Jacksonville.

Some numbers that have to give.
While not as explosive an event as the Boston Red Sox winning four straight playoff games after being down three, The Giants and Lions are nursing their own mini-win streaks headed on a collision course. The Lions, who hold the record for the biggest losing streak on the road, are 2-0 on the road this season. Meanwhile, the Giants are 2-0 at home with a 4 game win streak.
Also on the line, Tiki Barber has rushed for 577 yards, with an average of 6.0 yards per carry and the Lions haven't allowed a 100 yard rusher this season.

More numbers.
The record for being late this season, reportedly over 2 hours, may have been set by Giants linebacker Barrett Green who used to play for Detroit and now plays for watch-keeper Tom Coughlin. Time management will likely cause him his starting spot for this game against his old teammates, even though Green this season has 23 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries and one touchdown.
Kurt Warner is the NFL's only starting quarterback to have thrown just one interception. He is averaging 29 passes per game in the five games played this season, with a 65 percent completion ratio and a 91.8 passer rating, the fifth-best in the NFC.

Last time - Detroit at Giants.
The last time the Lions and Giants played was Nov. 19, 2000. The Lions won that game 31-21 at Giants Stadium. The next week, Jim Fassel guaranteed that the 7-4 Giants would make the playoffs. The Giants went on to win the next 5 games at Arizona, at Washington,at home against Pittsburgh, at Dallas, and then home again against Jacksonville.
The surging Giants won the next 2 playoff games at home against Philadelphia 20-10, and Minnesota 41- 0. They took that 7 game win streak to Super Bowl XXXV, only to lose to the Ravens 34 - 7. The Ravens were more impressed than the Giants fans. Jim Fassel works for them now.

Detroit on offense.
The Lions rank 32nd out of 32 NFL teams in total offense. In last week's loss at home to the Packers, Detroit was held to just 33 yards rushing and only 125 total yards. They had no first downs and gained only 18 yards in the second half. How did this team win two games on the road and get to a 3-1 record before losing last week? Well, they have wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim, and it certainly helps when rookie receiver Roy Williams is on the field too. Williams had 17 receptions for 277 yards and 4 touchdowns in the first three games. He was hurt in the fourth game with a sprained ankle and didn't play last week.
The Lions have also had trouble on the ground with rookie Kevin Jones barely making it into the game last week because of a high ankle sprain. Look for both
first-round draft choices, Roy Williams and Kevin Jones, to be playing in this game against the Giants.

Detroit on Defense.
The Lions defense ranks 29th in the league, much better against the run than the pass. They will have trouble keeping to that against the Giants and Tiki Barber, but even if they do, the Lions have to contend with Kurt Warner who is on his game, and the Giants receiving group. With Tim Carter out for the season, they will feature Jamaar Taylor as the speedster this week. It won't help the Lions if cornerback Fernando Bryant (groin) can't make this game.

Special teams keep the Lions in the game.
Last week against the Packers, Lions' kick returner Eddie Drummond had 2 punt returns for a 24-yard average, and 6 kickoff returns for a 30.3-yard average to give them great field position. His 29.0 average ranks second in the NFC and he was named NFC special teams player of the month for September.
Meanwhile Giants kicker Steve Christie, just fine with field goals, has managed just two touchbacks in the last five seasons. This could be a big matchup problem for the Giants if Christie is off with his directional kicking, or if Drummond gets any kind of open space from the coverage team. Detroit's kicker, Jason Hanson, has been good at keeping opponents inside the 20 on kickoffs, 8 times in 21 tries.

Interesting meeting.
Detroit's special-teams coach is Chuck Priefer, and his son Mike is the Giants' assistant special teams coach. This game should make for some good conversation at the next few family dinners.
"We talked last week and I said, 'I don't want to play you, dad,' " Mike Priefer said. "And he said, 'I don't want to play you, either.' I've always cheered for him. Now I can't. I want to get after him. I want to win this game."

Notes.
Giants, 2-0 at home, haven't been 3-0 at home since 1993.
Giants have not allowed a rushing TD in 9 games over two seasons.
Giants have allowed only 41 points in four games since the Week 1 loss to the Eagles.
This is the sixth time since the schedule expanded from 12 to 14 games in 1961 that the Giants have started 4-1.
Only once have they failed to reach the playoffs.

Kurt Warner is the most accurate passer in NFL history, completing 66.3 percent of his throws (1,216 of 1,835).
Kurt Warner is the league’s highest-rated quarterback on third down over the past 10 seasons.
Tiki Barber has rushed for more than 100 yards in four games this season.
Detroit has not allowed a 100-yard rusher in their five games this season.

Detroit Lions had the worst road losing streak in NFL history - 24 games.
Now the Lions are 2-0 on the road this season with wins in Chicago and Atlanta.

Next Game
Oct 31 at 1PM, Giants at Minnesota.

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