Coughlin: Giants' Schedule A Week-In, Week-Out Challenge
NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) -- It won't be easy this coming season for the Super Bowl champion Giants.
The schedule was revealed by the NFL Tuesday night, and New York will have a whopping five games in prime time. They'll also have to face seven playoff teams.
"To get where we want to go you have to play the best teams in football," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "And we certainly are playing the best teams."
Three of the prime time games will be played in the first four weeks of the season with two being midweek contests, including the season opener on September 5, a Wednesday night meeting the Dallas Cowboys.
The league also has the Giants facing the Panthers on a Thursday night in the third week of the season and playing the Philadelphia Eagles 10 days later in a Sunday night contest.
The Giants will face the three NFC teams - Atlanta, Green Bay and San Francisco - they defeated in the playoffs. They also will have games with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Green Bay, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
New York won't have a bye until Nov. 18.
"We will have a week-in and week-out challenge, not only in who we play, but with the different elements of our schedule," Coughlin said. "We play on four different days and we have five night games. Our first three games are Wednesday-Sunday-Thursday. We play two road night games early, come home for a week and then go to San Francisco. Our people are going to have to be really good about it."
The Giants ended a mostly ho-hum regular season with consecutive wins over the Jets and Cowboys to snag the NFC East crown at 9-7. From there, they defeated the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC playoffs, before knocking off the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Complete schedule:
Sept. 5 Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 16 Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.
Sept. 20 at Carolina, 8:20 p.m.
Sept. 30 at Philadelphia, 8:20 p.m.
Oct. 7 Cleveland, 1 p.m.
Oct. 14 at San Francisco, 4:15 p.m.
Oct. 21 Washington, 1 p.m.
Oct. 28 at Dallas, 4:15 p.m.
Nov. 4 Pittsburgh, 4:15 p.m.
Nov. 11 at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Nov. 18 BYE
Nov. 25 Green Bay, 8:20 p.m.
Dec. 3 at Washington, 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 9 New Orleans, 4:15 p.m.
Dec. 16 at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
Dec. 23 at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Dec. 30 Philadelphia, 1 p.m.
Giants fans, do you think the schedule is fair? Sound off below!
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