Palladino: Giants Need Real Home-Field Advantage

'From the Pressbox'
By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns

Ernie is the author of "Lombardi and Landry." He'll be covering football throughout the season.

The 8-7 Giants have won two of their last three and the Cowboys, also 8-7, have lost three of their last four. You'd think the Giants would have the momentum advantage going into Sunday night's winner-take-all matchup at MetLife Stadium for the NFC East title and a home playoff game.

On paper, they do. And let's face it, this game can't get any bigger for the hometown fans, as proved by the limited supply of tickets on the secondary market that are selling anywhere from $195 for upper end zone seats to Coaches Club seats for $7,000, which is almost 10 times their usual price of $750 per seat.
The fans will be out in force, waving white towels with an "All In" logo, representing the Giants' collective mindset.

It should be a raucous evening with upwards of 80,000 playoff-hungry fans turning MetLife into a cauldron of noise.

So what is this gnawing feeling that wishes this game was being played anywhere else but the Meadowlands?
Not to throw a bucket of water on the proceedings, but there is a major point here. The Giants simply haven't done well at home. Not this year, where they hold a 3-4 record. They haven't done well against the NFC East, either, with a 2-3 mark.

That shouldn't be a particular cause for worry, since the Giants were clearly road warriors during a Super Bowl championship season in 2007 that saw them go 3-5 at home and 7-1 on the road, not to mention their four postseason wins away from the Meadowlands.

But it is, simply because the Giants have played so poorly in three of those four losses.

Aside from the Green Bay setback where the offense played a 60-minute game only to see the defense play for 59 minutes and two seconds, the Giants failed to show up against Seattle and Washington, and let a backup quarterback in Philadelphia's Vince Young look like John Elway. And that's to say nothing about what they allowed the eminent Charlie Whitehurst and Rex Grossman to accomplish.

Their two huge wins have come on the road against New England and Dallas.

"When you're at home you do have a tendency to relax, play a little looser in some ways, but that's no excuse," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We've got to play better at home and we all know that."
The fact is, fans should be very, very worried about what kind of Giants team will produce itself come Sunday night. So far, there have been some good signs at practice, with Osi Umenyiora working in drills for the first time since he went out four games ago with ankle and knee problems.

Tuck, judging by his performance against the Jets, appears well-enough healed from his stinger and toe issues to provide ample complement to first-time Pro Bowler Jason Pierre-Paul, who was named the NFC's Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in three games.

"He's excited as can be," Tom Coughlin said of Tuck. "It looked like his old personality was out there on the field. He led by example. I don't see any reason why that would stop. He's feeling good about himself now and I think he's feeling good enough physically that he can be what we expect him to be."
Coughlin said he's optimistic about getting Hakeem Nicks and the strained hamstring that took away his deep routes for three quarters last week, and Mario Manningham and his knee problems back.

But the plain fact is that the Giants haven't played well at home in big spots.

All the pieces should be in place. The fans will be screaming, at least at the beginning. The towels will say "All In."

It then becomes a matter of whether the Giants will follow the logo.

That's not a given.

Will home field be a distinct advantage for the Giants? Leave a comment below.