Giants vs. Colts: 5 things to know about Week 17

The Giants and Colts may have faced off in The Greatest Game Ever Played — the 1958 NFL Championship Game — and the title game the following year, but the reality is, they really don’t have much of a history other than that.

This Sunday will mark just the 17th all-time regular season contest between the teams since the Colts entered the NFL in 1953 as the Baltimore Colts.

This will be only the ninth meeting between the clubs since the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984. In fact, the Giants and Colts did not face one another in the 1980s.

The Colts lead the regular season series, 10-6, have won the last four, and have a 2-0 postseason advantage. In their last meeting, Indianapolis hosted the Giants in Week 16 of 2018 and won, 28-27.

The Giants can wrap up a postseason berth as a wild card with a victory in this game. They can also qualify if one of the below scenarios comes to fruition:

Giants tie, plus…

A Seattle loss or tie + Washington loss or tie or a SEA loss or tie + Detroit loss or tie or a WAS loss or tie + DET loss or tie + Green Bay loss or tie.

Got it?

Giants lose, and…

A SEA loss + WAS loss or a SEA loss + DET loss + GB loss or tie or a WAS loss + DET loss + GB loss.

Whew.

The Colts have been eliminated from postseason contention.

Indianapolis has lost five straight and eight of their last nine games. The season began with them trying to settle their quarterback position after the Carson Wentz experiment didn’t pan out the way they expected.

They brought in former Atlanta Falcons star Matt Ryan and that hasn’t gone their way, either. The net result is all of this trading stripped them of their first three draft picks this season and they still have no solution at quarterback. They will start veteran Nick Foles against the Giants this week.

Perhaps the bigger story was the firing of head coach Frank Reich after a 3-5-1 start and the hiring of former star center Jeff Saturday as Reich’s replacement. Saturday had no experience as a coach and was most recently working as a television analyst. The Colts have gone 1-4 under Saturday.

After a 6-1 start, the Giants have gone 2-5-1 with their only non-losses coming against the Houston Texans and Washington Commanders.

The Giants are still in playoff contention as outlined above. They hold the tiebreaker over Washington and Green Bay but do not against Seattle and Detroit.

The Giants lost, 27-24, to the Minnesota Vikings on the road last week on a 61-yard field goal in the final seconds. This season, the Giants are averaging 20.7 yards per game. They have not scored more than 27 points in any single game and have scored between 20-27 points in 11 of their games and between 13-19 in their other four.

The Giants have allowed 29.0 points per game over their last three and are allowing 366.6 yards per game this season, sixth most in the NFL.

It’s not all doom and gloom with the Giants right now. Hey, they’re a win away from the postseason and some players are actually having grea