Giants, Titans play for No.1 spots
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 20, 2008 00:00
NEW YORK - For most of the season, the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants were the dominant teams in the NFL's two conferences.
On Sunday, they will be playing to lock up the top playoff seedings in the AFC and NFC respectively, positions that have become precarious after being considered certainties since midseason. Both are at home against their primary rival for home-field advantage: the Titans against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Giants against the Carolina Panthers.Â
"We've got some tangible, big-time goals to achieve in front of us here in the regular season," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin says. "Having an opportunity to play the best in our conference at their place this week is motivation enough to get out of bed and be ready to rock 'n' roll professionally. Our team is of that mentality."
The Titans will be without tackle Albert Haynesworth, their best defensive player, who injured his knee in last week's loss to the Houston Texans. Still, they clinch home-field advantage if they win; if the Steelers win, they will get the tiebreaker for the top seed with a week to go, but could blow that spot by losing their finale against the Cleveland Browns.
The Panthers are 3-3 away and, curiously, haven't clinched anything, not even a wild card spot. Still, they lead the NFC South by two games over Atlanta and Tampa Bay with two games to go, so that's pretty safe.
And if they win Sunday's game at the Meadowlands, they win everything, including that top seed. The New York Giants have lost two in a row and scored only one offensive touchdown in those losses.
The defeats have been attributed to the absence of Plaxico Burress, the team’s chief receiving threat, who was placed on the injury suspended list after he was arrested on handgun charges.
In fact, Tom Coughlin was almost giddy with anticipation this week. "It is terrific," the Giants coach said after uncharacteristically greeting the media with a pair of jumping jacks. "Can you imagine being this time of year, being 11-3 and playing at home for the chance to have a first-round bye and play at home throughout the playoffs? Think about that; just think about it a minute. If you can't be excited about this, I'm not sure what the heck you can be excited about."
Four of the eight divisions have been decided entering the weekend, with the Giants, Titans and Steelers winning theirs and Arizona the champion of the weak NFC West.
"We've got some tangible, big-time goals to achieve in front of us here in the regular season," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin says. "Having an opportunity to play the best in our conference at their place this week is motivation enough to get out of bed and be ready to rock 'n' roll professionally. Our team is of that mentality."
The Titans will be without tackle Albert Haynesworth, their best defensive player, who injured his knee in last week's loss to the Houston Texans. Still, they clinch home-field advantage if they win; if the Steelers win, they will get the tiebreaker for the top seed with a week to go, but could blow that spot by losing their finale against the Cleveland Browns.
The Panthers are 3-3 away and, curiously, haven't clinched anything, not even a wild card spot. Still, they lead the NFC South by two games over Atlanta and Tampa Bay with two games to go, so that's pretty safe.
And if they win Sunday's game at the Meadowlands, they win everything, including that top seed. The New York Giants have lost two in a row and scored only one offensive touchdown in those losses.
The defeats have been attributed to the absence of Plaxico Burress, the team’s chief receiving threat, who was placed on the injury suspended list after he was arrested on handgun charges.
In fact, Tom Coughlin was almost giddy with anticipation this week. "It is terrific," the Giants coach said after uncharacteristically greeting the media with a pair of jumping jacks. "Can you imagine being this time of year, being 11-3 and playing at home for the chance to have a first-round bye and play at home throughout the playoffs? Think about that; just think about it a minute. If you can't be excited about this, I'm not sure what the heck you can be excited about."
Four of the eight divisions have been decided entering the weekend, with the Giants, Titans and Steelers winning theirs and Arizona the champion of the weak NFC West.