Jets, Giants set for playoff run

Three games left, with everything hanging in the balance for the Jets and Giants.

Three games left, and Super Bowl dreams still are alive.

Three games left -- with no guarantee that either team will even make the playoffs.

Three games left, and no better way for this whole thing to play out than what lies ahead.

Especially with a Jets-Giants game next week that figures to be the most important and most riveting in the long, albeit infrequent, series of intra-city matchups.

With all the twists and turns this season has presented for both teams, including a three-game losing streak for the Jets and a four-game skid for the Giants, what happens in the next three games will determine whether either (or both) gets to play for the Lombardi Trophy.

Or whether either (or both) misses out on the greatest tournament in professional sports.

Three games to see if they can live out their dreams. Or else wonder what if.

That they face one another next week makes this stretch run all the more dramatic. The Jets and Giants play only once every four years, and have met only 11 times in the regular season dating to 1970. The Giants have won seven of those games, including six of the last eight.

But never have the stakes been higher. And never has a Jets-Giants game had such serious implications for each team, sandwiched between massively important games for both.

The Jets face the Eagles Sunday at Philadelphia with a chance to maintain their grip on a wild-card spot. Then it's the Giants in front of a Jets home crowd, and at Miami in the season finale.

A week after their dramatic comeback win at Dallas, the Giants face a Redskins team Sunday knowing that a win over Washington guarantees they'll have a chance to play for the divisional title against Dallas at home on New Year's Day.

Can't think of a more exhilarating set of circumstances to finish off a season.

Surely each team's fans would rather be assured that their team had clinched a playoff spot by now. Then again, part of the enjoyment of a situation like this is the sheer anticipation, coupled with an uncertainty that makes the journey so captivating.

As a measure of just how delightfully unpredictable things have become, even Rex Ryan has stopped making his grandiose predictions of late.

"Do I think we're a playoff team?" he asked rhetorically. "I absolutely do, but we have work to do. Right now, we're fighting for our playoff lives. We have to get in the playoffs before we can talk Super Bowl . . . then we will."

After two years of what seemed like daily proclamations that the Jets would make it to the title game, Ryan is like the rest of the players and the fans. He's just hoping for the best down the stretch.

That especially goes for the game against the Eagles (5-8), clinging to playoff life, who are not to be taken lightly by a Jets team that has struggled against scrambling quarterbacks.

The Giants have some momentum as a result of their comeback victory last weekend. But they're also dealing with some off-field controversy heading into the game against the 4-9 Redskins.

Last week, it was Ahmad Bradshaw violating team rules and getting benched for the first half.

This week, the situation is far more serious. According to a report on TMZ.com, linebacker Michael Boley is being investigated on suspicion of abusing his 5-year-old son earlier this year. It is a serious and disturbing situation but one in which the facts must be determined before any sweeping judgments are made or punishment is meted out. So far, there is no indictment. A Giants spokesman said Saturday that the team is aware of the situation and that Boley is expected to play against the Redskins.

As for the game itself, the Giants will be anxious to build on last week's late-game theatrics, although they'd certainly find a less dramatic route to victory acceptable.

"The most important game of the season is right now," said Eli Manning, who produced 15 points in the final 3:14 to beat Dallas. "I think we've done a great job all season of never quitting, fighting to the very end, always staying positive."

If it comes down to another fourth-quarter comeback, fine. But Manning said, "I wouldn't complain if we go into the fourth quarter with a little lead and try to hold on to a lead.''