New York Giants: 3 Giants wins this year that impacted the NFL playoff picture

The New York Giants might not be headed for the playoffs themselves, but as they prepare for their final battle, we can look back on the year and see how Big Blue still impacted the NFL Playoff Picture.

The New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys Week 17 matchup is meaningless on Sunday. The Cowboys are penciled in as the four seed and the Giants are knocked out of the playoffs entirely.

Throughout the course of the season, it became very apparent that the Giants were not going to be a playoff team.

However, now that the only thing on the minds of 15 teams, is their playoff spots. Who do they play? When do they play?

For the rest, and that includes the Giants, it is all about playing for pride or a high draft pick.

The Giants might only win six games. They could very easily lose to Dallas to win just five on the year.

But, now that we know the fate of most teams, we can look back and see what could have been if the Giants didn’t beat or lose in a specific week.

Here are three of the games this year that would end up impacting the playoff picture because of the Giants.

Please note, I am not the biggest fan of the “what if” scenarios too. But, the Giants did win some games that could end up haunting some playoff teams.

Giants vs Texans, Week 3 

Yeah, remember this win? It was the Giants first win of the season and would end up being the Giants only win in the months of October and November combined.

At the time, this felt like a huge win. The Giants went on the road and beat what turned out to be a playoff team in a stadium they visit once every eight years.

Well, as it turns out, this game could end up costing the Texans a first round bye in the playoffs. The Texans’ other losses include to the Patriots, Eagles, Titans, and the Colts.

Those are all teams in or still in the playoff race. The Giants beating them is the only outlier. The win is arguably the biggest for the Giants this season and the worst for the Texans.

While the Texans could still end up tied for the best record in the AFC, if they had beaten the Giants, they would currently be sitting at 11-4 and in control of their own destiny of that coveted first round bye.

The Giants winning that game felt insignificant at the time, but it turns out to be a huge result in terms of the AFC Playoff picture and the AFC South Division race.

The Giants are not even in that conference.