Yup, these next few weeks leading into the bye are huge. Cardinals, Lions, Cowboys, Jets. If Giants are going to make the playoffs, goal here has to be 3-1 in that stretch. Put the team at 5-5 going into the second half of the season. Dolphins and Skins are wins, that's 7-5, from there you would have to steal 2 games from the Bears/Packers/Eagles/Eagles slate. Easier said than done, but that would be your path to playoffs for the Giants.
The Eagles and Cowboys aren't that good. Giants defense has been getting progressively better week by week and they should only keep getting better as all these young kids have the game slow down a bit for them. What will be a defining factor going forward is if Saquon/Engram can get back and if they can actually participate in all the practices this week. Long week, extra time to prep, should allow for the offense to gel a bit going into Metlife Sunday against the Cards.
My hope is with Saquon back, Shurmur starts to get a little more creative again, some more RPO and triple option type stuff. Jones doesn't have to be Lamar Jackson, but lets at least see if you establish some run with Saquon what he can do with some triple option plays where defenses have to be equally afraid of Saquon's legs, Jones legs and Jones throwing. Haven't really had a chance to see that much outside of the first half of the Tampa game, once Saquon went out the offense seemed to turn into more of a pocket offense with Jones making most of the runs on his own reads rather than being designed and schemed up.