Eagles and Giants Play With High Stakes Tonight

Trent Cole says the winner of Sunday Night's game will be "King of the Hill" in the NFC and maybe the whole league.

When the Eagles and Giants get together there always seems to be a lot on the line.  That’s the case tonight as Philadelphia hosts New York with first place in the NFC East hanging in the balance.  The winner will improve to 7-3 and could be tied with the Bears, Packers and Falcons for the best record in the conference if Atlanta loses, but will at the very least still be right in the thick of things for a first round bye in the playoffs.  The loser will fall to 6-4 and most likely be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, with the Packers holding one wild card spot and the Saints and Buccaneers both 6-3 and winning as of 5:45 p.m.

”It’s going to be the biggest game in the NFL this year, this is the biggest game right here,” said Eagles defensive end Trent Cole. “Who’s going to be the king of the hill?”

That might be a bit of hyperbole, but it’s a huge game regardless, between two teams who don’t think fondly of each other.  Eagles safety Quintin Mikell said the Giants are considered the most hated opponent by the Birds locker room, and the games have a demeanor to match.

“When you think about football and what it should be about, I think of these games,” Mikell said. “I think about big plays, big hits, physicality, you know, bruised up for the next week. That’s what I think about when I think about the Giants.”

That’s just fine with a New York team that has injured five quarterbacks this season, and rumblings out of the Big Apple are that the Giants might be looking to put some hard licks on Michael Vick early and often, hoping to shorten his night.  Philadelphia doesn’t plan on getting too wrapped up in that talk.

“We don’t get too much into that, we just do our job and do it to the best of our ability and then let everybody else do the talking,” said head coach Andy Reid.  “There’s freedom of speech in this country and like I said before that that’s a good thing.  We’ll be ready.”

Both teams should be, with a national audience on Sunday Night Football, set to take in a matchup between two of the top three teams in the NFC.

“We’re going to go out there and they don’t like us, we don’t like them and that’s going to be that,” Mikell said.

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Tags: Andy Reid, DeSean Jackson, Eagles, eagles vs giants, Giants, Michael Vick, New York Giants, NFC East, Philadelphia Eagles