Great news from Ralph Vacchiano today in regards to Brandon Jacobs.

The Giants’ big running back said a few minutes ago that he feels as good as he has since way back in Week 3 and that the sprained PCL in his left knee is no longer an issue. In fact, he felt so good that he’s apparently been a ball of energy all day long - so much so that Tom Coughlin had to do his best to rein him in.

“All day long he’s been saying, ‘Brandon, you’ve got to remember the game is on Sunday,’” Jacobs said. “I’m wired. You’ve got to understand, I haven’t played the last two weeks and I feel like my production’s been down when I have played.” ...

After sitting out the Giants’ season finale and resting during the bye week too, it looks like Jacobs will be healthy enough to make a difference when the Giants face the Eagles on Sunday.

“I can go out and run full speed. I can make all the cuts. I feel real good,” Jacobs said. “I can’t wait for game day.”

The Eagles had better be ready. The big fella is coming, and I don't think he will be hurdling any would-be tacklers.

Jason from 'Bleeding Green Nation' and I have been continuing our conversations regarding this weekend's New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles playoff game.

Remember to stop by 'Bleeding Green' and see how the Eagles' fans are reacting to our little chats.

Anyway, follow the jump for the result of our second conversation. This one was started by yours truly.

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The Philadelphia Eagles are on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. Everywhere you turn you read that the Eagles are the hot team, they are dangerous, they might be the Giants of last season.

Yep, the Eagles bandwagon is growing. Swelling so quickly in fact that I'm not sure there are any seats left. From all the racket about the Eagles you'd think maybe the Giants should just lay down their crown right now.

Well, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post has written a tremendous piece summarizing the frenzy, and why it might just be foolish.

Here is some of what Vaccaro wrote.

You know how this is going to go this week, right? The days will pass slowly - agonizingly, tantalizingly, excruciatingly slowly - and the more the time passes, the more people will allow themselves to be talked into backing the Eagles. ...

But here is what everyone should really remember:

The Eagles may be a wonderful story, they and the Chargers have no doubt brought a smile to Pete Rozelle's face in a smoking room somewhere in the Hereafter for ratifying his wish that all teams at all times should have an opportunity to dream big dreams. But the Eagles are also a team that tied the Bengals this year. The Eagles are a team that scored three points against the playing-out-the-string Redskins in an everything game just 16 days ago.

And the Giants are a team, the only team, with history in its gaze.

In the entire history of the NFL, which goes back 89 years, all the way to 1920, there have been 13 franchises that have won consecutive championships. Thirteen. The Canton Bulldogs did it first, the Patriots most recently. The Packers have done it three times, the Bears and Steelers twice apiece. Repeating is the holy grail in the NFL, because just winning once is a chore of almost epic proportions.

Winning twice?

Winning twice puts you in a permanent position of royalty. As storied as the Giants of the '30s and '40s were, as gloried as the Giants of the '50s were, and as stubbornly defiant as the Giants of the '80s were, no Giants team has ever repeated. There are 32 teams in the NFL; 20 of them have never done it. Most never will. Most would give just about anything to win once.

There are eight teams left in the NFL's postseason. Seven will be chasing a trophy. Only the Giants will be chasing history....

The champ is usually an awfully tough out.

And these Giants, by everything we have seen over the past two years, will be just that. They will be an awfully tough out.

There is only one thing that makes me mad about what Vaccaro wrote. That is that I didn't write it myself.

By way of previewing this weekend's New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles playoff game, the marvelous 'JasonB' from Bleeding Green Nation and I have begun a series of 'conversations.' via e-mail.

When we start them we aren't sure where they are going, only that they involve topics of interest surrounding this weekend's highly-anticipated matchup. When we finish each conversation -- and right now we don't know how many we will have -- we will publish the full results for your enjoyment.

We obviously come at these conversations with different viewpoints, but we are doing this in a civil, friendly manner. As always, I hope you will do the same when you comment on our opinions, here and at BGN.

So, let's get started. Below is my first completed conversation with Jason. He started this one. I hope you enjoy it.

Bleeding Green: Last year when Dallas drew the Giants in the divisional round, I said it was the worst possible matchup the home team could hope for. I think the same thing about the Giants this year. Not because I Eagles are more talented, or not for any specific on the field matchups... but for the fact that it's a division game. The Eagles are probably the only opponent left in the playoffs where all the things that should be advantages for the Giants won't be. Previous record, week off, even homefield we know doesn't mean a whole lot in an NFC East matchup(as evidenced by both teams beating the other away this year). Of course, this means the Eagles have no advantages either ... I know you guys aren't "afraid" of the Eagles, but would you agree that all the advantages a home team usually would enjoy in this round mean a little less when it's a division opponent?

Big Blue View: Well, this is the most difficult matchup the Giants could have ended up with in this round of the playoffs, I will concede that much. Part of that is simply because these teams know each other so well. There is no mystery, and no fear on either side. Home field means more, I think, when you are taking a team out of conditions it is used to playing in -- West Coast to East Coast, dome team to bad weather, etc.

To me, the Giants biggest advantage was earning the bye week. I believe they were beat up and just generally gassed at the end of the season, and that the rest will be a huge help.

Bleeding Green: I suppose that answers another question I had about the bye. Last year you guys didn't have the bye and in fact you didn't even rest your starters in the final game even though you had already clinched. Obviously that philosophy worked last year ...

This year is the total opposite. The starters spent most of the final game on the bench and you've got a bye week ... Obviously that's good for injured players, but do you think it could have any negative affect? Can this team turn it on after basically 2 weeks off?

Big Blue View: Well, every season is difficult (note here that I should have said 'different'). To be honest, I would have been very worried about the Giants if they had had to play last week. Brandon Jacobs has not practiced in a couple of weeks. Defensive tackles Fred Robbins and Barry Cofield finished the season beat up. Justin Tuck was beat up and worn out. Wide receiver Domenik Hixon was playing, but not practicing at the end. Kevin Boss and Aaron Ross were hurting. The Giants, basically, were not whole even though they played a great game against Carolina and won when they had to. You just never know what effect time out does to chemistry, execution, all that stuff. But, the Giants regular season bye came after Week 3, they played a brutal schedule and they definitely needed the week off to get healthy.

'Mr. Met' mentioned in a recent comment that he had seen an NFL Network report that Giants' defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did not appear likely to land any of the head-coaching jobs currently available.

I went and looked it up, and here is the report.

You never know about the accuracy of all these reports. There is so much speculation from so many sources it is hard to know who to believe.

If this is right however, it is great news for the Giants.

• NFL.com is reporting that former Giants' coach Jim Fassel will interview for the St. Louis Rams' job.
  

Before we begin any full-scale analysis of Sunday's New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles playoff game let's look back at this season's two meetings between the NFC East rivals and see what we can learn.

We know the outcomes, with the teams having split games. The Giants won in Philly, 36-31. The Eagles won in the Meadowlands, 20-14, the only team to beat the Giants at home this season.

We also know the Giants wrapped up the NFC East ages ago, while the Eagles had to fight right down to the final game to get into the playoffs.

Anyway, let's look back at the two games.

Giants 36, Eagles 31

The Giants did not clinch this game until Chase Blackburn stopped Brian Westbrook on a 4th-and-1 with less than two minutes remaining.  This game, however, should not have been nearly that close.

The Giants dominated play.

• They had a 39:10 - 20:50 advantage in time of possession.
• They had 401 yards of total offense to Philly's 300.
• They had 26 first downs to 17 for the Eagles.

The Eagles, though, hung in the game and had an opportunity thanks mainly to the Giants' own mistakes, including a rare Brandon Jacobs' fumble. I don't think we will see the big fella hurdling anyone this week, though.

There was also a very fortunate Eagles' interception by a lineman, I believe, on the game's third play. Philly turned that into a gift touchdown.

Eagles' fans, I'm sure, will say the Giants got help from the zebras. Replay reversal of a key completion by Eli Manning to Kevin Boss when it was ruled Manning had not crossed the line of scrimmage was a huge play in this game.

Brian Westbrook had just 13 carries for 26 yards in this game. Jacobs rumbled for 126 yards on 22 carries, Derrick Ward added 53 on 17 carries and Ahmad Bradshaw had 38 yards on five tries.

That type of running game and time of possession is what the Giants hope to see again this weekend.

The Giants came out of this game 8-1, while the Eagles were 5-4.

Eagles 20, Giants 14

This game was a completely different story. The Eagles re-discovered their running game here, dominating time of possession, 34:54 - 25:06. Westbrook was unstoppable with 131 yards on 33 carries, and Jacobs injured his knee.

The Giants clinched the NFC East despite losing.

You can argue that the Plaxico Burress situation had distracted the Giants. You can say they had won six straight against teams with winning records, that they knew they were going to be NFC East champs, that they simply didn't bring the same intensity.

There is validity to those arguments. Yet this game also started some trends that are disturbing.

• Westbrook had a 30-yard touchdown run. In each game since, the Giants' defense has given up at least one long scoring run.
• Westbrook smoked the Giants' linebackers (particularly Antonio Pierce) for a 40-yard touchdown catch. Teams have been exploiting the Giants' linebackers in pass coverage since.
  
•  The Giants had only one sack of Donovan McNabb. At times this season the pass rush -- especially toward the end of the season -- has not been there.

What can we learn

To be honest, I'm not sure this look back teaches us anything we didn't already know. You simply have to contain Westbrook to defeat the Eagles. If you can do that, I am still not sure where else Philadelphia will get big plays from.

When I look at these two games I believe the Giants are a better team. Offensively, I believe they have more weapons. It's no accident they have a better record.

Contain Westbrook, avoid turnovers and I think the Giants win the game. Not easy, of course, but that's what it really comes down to.

Here are some highlights from Tom Coughlin's press conference today. As you might expect, the Giants' coach was very vague about everything, from injuries to planning for Brian Westbrook.

On injuries.

They seem to be doing okay.  I am not going to say what their status will be on Wednesday.  We will take full advantage of today and tomorrow to get ourselves closer to that.  But hopefully we can work even if it is in a limited basis.  But we will see.

On Westbrook.

He is a guy that you have got to try to do everything that you can.  However, as you notice there are many playmakers out there – Jackson, Curtis.  There are a lot of guys that made many, many plays and helped yesterday.  So an awareness of where Westbrook is and trying to do a good job of being in position to get many people around and be a part of the tackling because he is so good at breaking tackles; the individual one-tackler type thing.  And he is able because he is strong and he has a good straight arm and that type of thing to break tackles.  So you have to have a lot of people arrive on the spot.

On Steve Spagnuolo's interviews.

No, it won’t be a distraction.  I have talked to him.  He has tried to keep me posted but there isn’t any doubt in my mind that his focus is right here preparing for the Philadelphia Eagles.  Last week was a League-wide opportunity for anybody who was in the bye week and a couple of days were set aside for this according to those rules.  And they did not interfere with anything that we are doing here.  And he, as always, is very much focused on the job at hand.

On whether losing three of four to end the season will affect the Giants at all.

Anytime you lose you are upset and anytime you win you feel pretty good about it.  But it never stops your ability to try to improve, to make corrections, to get your team individually and as a group playing better.  And that is the thing that we have been focusing on.  So that is what is most important to me.  The regular season is over, whatever the numbers might be.  We have been cast into a situation where we had the bye.  You heard me say that I thought the bye was good for our team.  I don’t know that I would necessarily say that every year.  In this case, I thought it was.  And so therefore we worked, we studied, and had an opportunity to have a weekend without a game and now we are back to work.

This sure does promise to be an entertaining week. There will be a lot written and a lot said, so stay tuned.

So, it will be our New York Giants against the NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday at the Meadowlands as the Giants begin defense of their Super Bowl title.

As Giants' fans didn't we know it would fall this way? The Eagles sure did. Check out this quote from defensive back Sheldon Brown.

I would never want to disrespect the Vikings by looking past them... but I kinda knew, we all did that it would come down to a rematch with the Giants

Of course we knew, even if we might not want to admit it. I know most of you rooted for the Vikings Sunday since, theoretically, that would have given the Giants an easier path to the NFC Championship Game.

But, c'mon! Did you really think a team with Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback and no big-play threats on the outside was going to stand up to the Eagles' defense?

Besides, would you really want this any other way? I wouldn't.

For two seasons now, nothing has been easy for the Giants. Last year's Super Bowl run, remember, was accomplished despite being on the road in every game.

This season the Giants went 12-4 despite a brutal schedule that saw them play 10 straight games against teams with winning records, and win six straight when it really mattered.

This team has always brought its best when the challenges were the biggest. So, why wouldn't we want to see Philadelphia Sunday at the Meadowlands?

I'm looking forward to it.

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Here is your Eagles at Vikings Open Thread. My pick: Eagles.

Here is your Ravens at Dolphins Open Thread. My pick: Dolphins.