I'm taking off work Sunday because I am in Giants country and there's no way I can tolerate being in this environment.

The more I look at it, the more I like the Birds' chances. The matchups are good for them with Plax out. Dawkins should be playing near the LOS all game as there's no real deep threat on the Giants anymore and no Shockey for him to cover deep down the middle. That's a plus.

I look for the Eagles' CBs to press the shit out of the Giants' receivers and they should be able to keep Eli under 11 yards per completion.

The Eagles' defense has been stupendous, and the run defense was incredible against Peterson last week. However, Jacobs is probably the toughest back in the league for them to stop. I don't really think they can stop him but they have to contain him to, say, under 110 yards.

Justin Tuck is the Giants' best player (a rarity, an All-Pro from Notre Dame who plays in NY yet is still underrated), but he's banged up. Jon Runyan is also banged up though, so this crucial matchup should be interesting.

On offense, I think the Eagles need to do three things:
1. Establish DeSean Jackson as a deep threat early in the game.
2. Isolate Westbrook on Pierce in the passing game.
3. Use a somewhat balanced attack...I think this is a good game to use the Buckhalter-Westbrook backfield a lot.

Problems for the Eagles, I think, are that Akers has been pretty bad at the Meadowlands, and that's not good in what figures to be a close game; and you have to like Eli over Donovan when it comes down to directing a late-game drive.

Definitely like the Eagles with the points now, and I think they probably win the game outright.

Birds 21, Giants 20