The Giants closed out the regular season in Philadelphia and they will be back there this Saturday after beating the Vikings in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
The Eagles got a win in Week 18 to clinch the division title and top seed in the playoffs, but the Giants were resting their starters in that game against a rusty Jalen Hurts making his return from a sprained shoulder. The Eagles blew the Giants out at MetLife Stadium earlier in the season, so they’ll be looking for a three-game sweep of the Giants this weekend.
At a Monday press conference, Giants head coach Brian Daboll was asked how much impact he thinks those games will have on this one.
“None,” Daboll said. “It’s how we go about our business this week, again how we prepare, how we practice and then ultimately how we play on Sunday — or Saturday in this case. Every game’s a new game. Obviously, you have matchups that you’ve went against here over the last two times you played them. One week really has nothing to do with the next week or one game has nothing to do with the next game other than you take things from it. You learn from it. You try to grow from it. But it’s going to be how we execute on Saturday and how we prepare throughout the week. That’s our process; that’s what it will always be. And that’s what it’ll be this week.”
Teams that swept a regular season series from a team they went on to face in the playoffs have gone 15-9 in the third meeting. That includes the 49ers finishing off their sweep of the Seahawks in the Wild Card round.
Daboll and the Giants will be trying to ensure that the Eagles aren’t the 16th team to pull that off.