Giants face tough schedule in prime time

Winning the Super Bowl earned the Giants no grace as far as the 2012 schedule is concerned. To return to the playoffs and defend their title, they'll face a difficult gantlet of games that includes five prime-time affairs, games on four different days of the week, and four of their final six contests against fellow 2011 playoff teams.

"As always, we face a very challenging schedule," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "To get where we want to go, you have to play the best teams in football and we certainly are playing the best teams."

The Giants already knew they opened against the Cowboys on Sept. 5, a Wednesday. Two weeks later, they'll play the Panthers in Carolina on Sept. 20, a Thursday night game on NFL Network. The other prime-time contests are Sunday night games in Week 4 against the Eagles in Philadelphia and Week 12 when they host the Packers, as well as their lone Monday night game in Week 13 against the Redskins in Washington.

"We will have a week in and week out challenge, not only in who we play, but with the different elements of our schedule," Coughlin said. "Our first three games are Wednesday, Sunday, Thursday. We play two road night games early, come home for a week and then go to San Francisco. Our people are going to have to be really good about it."

They'll complete their season meetings with the Cowboys by Week 8 when they visit Dallas. But they'll twice face three consecutive 2011 playoff teams in the second half of the season: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Green Bay in November and New Orleans, Atlanta and Baltimore in December.

The bye will be during Week 11.

The Giants also set the dates of their first two preseason games. They'll open at Jacksonville on Friday, Aug. 10, and play the Jets on Saturday, Aug. 18. That means the Giants likely will report to training camp July 26, with July 27 the first day of practices.

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