Tennessee Titans free safety Kevin Byard celebrates the sacking of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Cody Kessler, not pictured, during the first half their Dec. 6 game in Nashville.EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Neither the Tennessee Titans nor the New York Giants have been paying much attention to playoff scenarios.
Both teams are on the outside looking in at the postseason heading into today's game at MetLife Stadium, and the best chance for each to make the playoffs is to win its three remaining regular-season games.
The road to Week 18 is not as complicated for the Titans (7-6) as for the host Giants (5-8), though.
Tennessee has won two in a row and needs to win out against the Giants, the Washington Redskins and the Indianapolis Colts while also having the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins each lose at least once.
As for the Giants, despite winning four of five games since their open date in early November, they need a miracle to get to the postseason. It would involve winning out (they visit Indianapolis next Sunday and host the Dallas Cowboys to close the regular season) and getting a ton of help. The oddsmakers have put New York's chances of reaching the playoffs at less than 1 percent.
The bottom line is veteran quarterback Eli Manning, rookie running back Saquon Barkley and their teammates are playing well, and they will be a major challenge for the Titans, who have been inconsistent since the start of October.
"The only thing that can really keep us focused on the task at hand is knowing that we have to win out to pretty much put ourselves in a good position to make the playoffs," Titans safety Kevin Byard said. "For us to be looking at different scenarios and all those things right now is kind of pointless because you can see in the NFL you can't judge, you can't pencil nobody in at this point.
"We have to control what we can control, and that's beating the Giants."
The Giants are coming off their best game in years. Playing without star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. because of a quadriceps injury last Sunday, they beat the Washington Redskins 40-16 in an NFC East matchup in which Manning threw three touchdown passes and turned things over to rookie Kyle Lauletta at the start of the fourth quarter with a 40-0 lead.
"We have so many weapons on this team, and we're still figuring it out," said Barkley, who rushed for 170 yards - his season best - and scored on a 78-yard run against the Redskins. "Right now, when you've got Eli throwing for three touchdowns and we're rushing for over 200 yards as a team, special teams is playing great, defense is giving us great field position with the help of special teams, our defense is making plays - that's what coach has been saying: Teams beat teams. Players don't beat teams.
"We've been playing at a high level as a team. We've got to keep it up down the stretch, and it starts with the Titans."
Barkley has rushed for at least 100 yards in four straight games and is third in the NFL this season with 1,124 rushing yards. His average of 5.4 yards per carry is the team's highest since Brandon Jacobs averaged 5.6 in 2006, and the rookie is second in the league this season with 1,753 yards from scrimmage, 11 yards behind Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott.
Barkley leads the Giants with 78 catches - one more than Beckham - and needs 11 receptions in the final three games to break Reggie Bush's 2006 record of 88 by a rookie running back.
There is progress on defense, too.
For one thing, the sacks are finally coming in bunches for the Giants. After getting 14 in the first 11 games, New York's defense has had five each in the past two games. Linebacker Olivier Vernon, who was under the microscope after posting one sack in six games in an injury-plagued season, has 3.5 in the past two games. Rookie tackle B.J. Hill had three in a 30-27 overtime win against the Chicago Bears two weeks ago.
Another plus: The Giants have 11 interceptions since their open date, with linebacker Alec Ogletree leading the way with four in the past four games, including two touchdown returns. (The former Georgia Bulldog leads NFL linebackers with five interceptions this year, and he has tied the single-season team record for interceptions by a linebacker, set by Jerry Hillebrand in 1963.)
Safety Curtis Riley got New York on the scoreboard against Washington last weekend with a 9-yard return for a touchdown. This is the first season the Giants have scored three touchdowns on interceptions since 2007.
The Titans are banged up, which isn't a surprise for most NFL teams this time of year, but their position in the standings - not out of the playoffs but not so far behind as to look toward next season - means they'll have to push through any minor health concerns.
And they need their running game to show it's for real.
Derrick Henry posted the first 100-yard rushing performance this season for Tennessee with his franchise-record 238 yards in the team's previous game, a 30-9 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 6. Now the question is whether he can follow that up. The Titans haven't had back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances since DeMarco Murray posted them in October 2016.