After all the dialogue about the significance of this last game — the benefit to winning and the temptation to lose in order to enhance draft position — the discussion can be narrowed to magnify one unrepresented group:
The paying customers in the building.
Remember them?
“I’m sure they’d much rather walk out of their home stadium talking crap to the Eagles fans instead of having the Eagles fans talk crap to them,’’ wide receiver Darius Slayton told The Post. “For sure.’’
For sure.
There is not much the Giants can do to mollify a fanbase that last season cheered on the refreshing winning formula curated by the new regime of general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll, and in Year 2 learned that the arrow would not, as was anticipated, point onward and upward.
The Giants on Sunday end a dismal season when they face the Eagles at what could be a wintry-mix sort of afternoon and evening at MetLife Stadium.
At 5-11, the Giants are headed nowhere but home, while the Eagles, slumping but still 11-5, are playoff-bound.
Can the Giants somehow, some way find it in themselves to send the portion of the crowd rooting for them to the exits with an actual victory against a rival that has owned them for far too long?
“Obviously we’re out of the playoffs, and we can’t do anything about that,’’ receiver Isaiah Hodgins said, “but if we can do our best to give the fans some bragging rights to end the year, that’s what we got to do.’’
Schoen and Daboll were hired to put losing trends into the past, but thus far they are batting .000 when it comes to taking care of business in the nicer NFC East neighborhoods.
They are 0-8 against the Cowboys and Eagles.
“There’s a talent gap there that we need to close,” Schoen said at the end of last season. “To me, it’s the NFC East. We were 1-5-1 against the NFC East. If you win the division, the rest takes care of itself. So that’s always going to be a goal of ours, to close that gap and be NFC East champs.’’
This was supposed to be the season to close the gap.
The Giants did not come close.
They went 0-2 against the Cowboys and allowed more points (89) in the two games than the Cowboys ever put on them in any previous season.
The Giants have now lost six consecutive games and 13 of the past 14 games to the Cowboys.
How ’bout them losses?
The tear sheet is equally abysmal when going over the accounting against the closest geographic division opponent. In 2022, the Eagles became the first team to beat the Giants three times in one season.
Two weeks ago, the Giants lost for the 10th consecutive time at Lincoln Financial Field.
It was close (33-25), but it was also the Eagles’ lone win in their past five games.
It is now five consecutive losses in this series for the Giants, owners of just six victories in the past 32 games against the Eagles.
This battle is for the Birds.
Daboll, not in a chatty mood — even for him — this past week steered the conversation into a brick wall when asked what finally beating the Eagles would mean.
He did point out his team has the chance to be 3-3 in the division this season.
Yes, the Giants improved this year (2-0) against the Commanders from last year’s showing — 1-0-1.
When was the last time any legitimate team ever used “being better than the Washington franchise” as a litmus test for, well, anything?
“The NFC East in general, we need to beat the Cowboys, we got to beat the Eagles,’’ guard Justin Pugh said. “You got to win your division. Until you can go and dominate your division, it’s hard to go on a playoff run and do all the things you want to do.’’
The Eagles arrive to this game as the No. 5 seed in the NFC, and the only way they can win the division is if they beat the Giants and the Cowboys lose in Washington, with the two games kicking off at the same time.
“I wouldn’t say we’re too worried about being the biggest spoilers in the world,’’ Hodgins said. “But I’m pretty sure a lot of fans would be happy if we went out and did that.’’
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