Playoffs? Giants Are Only Interested in Cleveland This Week

A drop from first to second place in the NFC East might have been devastating for Giants fans, but it's not a subject too present in the players and coaches' minds.

Obviously, the team is not happy with the 26-7 loss against the Cardinals on Sunday, but the players and coaches have their focus squarely on correcting the mistakes from the film and then getting ready for the Cleveland Browns.

"I've already addressed the team today in the squad meeting," head coach Joe Judge said. "The focus is still what the focus has been the entire year: To come to work, to improve as a team, to move forward and play our next football next Sunday. That's the only thing that can help us; that's the only thing that matters."

To a degree, Judge is correct. There's nothing the Giants can do to speed up the clock and get to the end of the season to see where they finish, so the only choice they have is to take it week by week.

But a win against the Browns on Sunday night could go a long way in righting the ship in terms of the Giants' divisional situation. But it would take more than that to get the Giants back into first place.

The Giants no longer have control of their destiny as the Washington Football Team has a one-game lead on the 5-8 Giants with a 6-7 record at the top of the division.

The Giants will need to outgain Washington by at least one game in the final three weeks of the season, and if that happens and the two teams end up with the same record, the Giants own the tiebreaker by winning both games against Washington earlier in the season.

However, with the Cowboys and Eagles winning yesterday as well, the Giants can't purely depend on Washington collapsing either and will need to maintain a leg up on their other two division rivals as well.

But those scenarios have a much more significant presence in the conversations of fans and the media than they do in the Giants' actual meetings.

Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, a team captain responsible for communicating essential points of information to his teammates, said he doesn't even know what the standings look like and is instead locked in on practice and preparation.

"I don't look at the records," Tomlinson said. "I just focus on us week in and week out. Who our opponent is and pretty much the game plan. I don't focus on other teams and if they won or lost. For the most part, I just want to come in week in and week out and grind."

That's not to say that Tomlinson and his teammates don't care about the playoffs.

"The playoffs are everything. As a team, you want to go to the playoffs and go to the Super Bowl and win a Super Bowl," Tomlinson admitted. "But we have to take it one week at a time and take it step by step. If we look too far ahead, you miss out on the moment now."

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