The Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants have very different things in mind heading up to their second division clash of the season: The Cowboys want to take over the number one spot in the NFC East, while the Giants can only try and ruin the playoff hunt for their big rivals.

It’s an awful season for the Giants. After starting 0-2, they improved to 3-2, and it looked like the rebuilding offensive line was allowing Eli Manning to become the new, patient, ‘West Coast offense‘ quarterback his offensive coordinator tried to turn him into. Well, it’s been five consecutive losses for the Giants, with Manning looking more and more like old self with every game that goes by.

In the 10-16 loss at home to the San Francisco 49ers, Manning threw five interceptions, as if to tell everyone to notice he’s back in all his glory as the king of interceptions in the NFL, ruining a solid defensive effort from his teammates.

The Cowboys at 7-3 are second in the division bases on their inferior division record compared to the Eagles, but the teams still have to face each other twice. The Eagles got routed badly in Green Bay, and they’re playing with Mark Sanchez at quarterback. It’s not too far fetched to see them starting tumbling down, even if their home game is against the poor 2-8 Tennessee Titans this weekend.

The Cowboys haven’t won against a good team since they beat the Giants in week 7. But the Giants from late October are a different team than the one the Cowboys will be facing now. Dallas followed that victory by losing at home to the Redskins and the Cardinals. Tony Romo is fit again, and it showed in an easy win over the Jags in London. But are the offensive line issues that suddenly came up going to show up again?

The Cowboys have played their best football this season on the road, going 4-0, including that shocking win over Seattle in overtime, despite the game not really being that close. They’re coming off a bye week and have DeMarco Murray rested, Tony Romo with relatively very few back pains and plenty of time to fix things not involving Tyron Smith.

Not winning against the Giants on the road will certainly complicate things for a team used to blowing their chances late in the season, missing the last four postseason berths. For New York, putting aside irrelevant theoretical chances of making the postseason, it’s all about spoiling it for others. Not quite sure they have what it takes to even do that.

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