EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If the New York Giants aren’t going to be making the playoffs, Odell Beckham Jr. wouldn’t mind playing spoiler.
The Giants play on the road against the stammering Washington Redskins on Sunday and close out the season by hosting the division-rival Dallas Cowboys.
“At this point, we can only focus on Washington. There is no ‘what if.’ We’re going out there to win,” Beckham said. “If our season is over, I’m making sure somebody else is coming home with us. That is the goal.
“The goal is to win all these games and see what happens, but if not, you have a tough game to play against us for the last four games.”
The Giants (4-8) are technically still alive for the NFC East and the playoffs. But they need a minor miracle to make the postseason. FPI has them at less than 1 percent to play past Week 17 this season despite having won three of their last four games.
They can blame that on a slow start to the season where they lost seven of their first eight games. The Giants have also lost all four of their division games this season, with two remaining.
The Redskins (6-6) and Cowboys (7-5) are still in the NFC East mix. Dallas leads by a game over Washington and Philadelphia.
With two division games remaining, the Giants are going to play a part in deciding who takes home that title. Beckham seems to see some peripheral benefit in beating their divisional rivals down the stretch, even if coach Pat Shurmur views it differently.
“No, again, we’re just trying to beat the Bears,” Shurmur said earlier in the week after a 30-27 overtime win over Chicago. “I don’t know what the spoiler thing means. I’m looking at the positive approach of us winning. I’m not really worried about the team we’re playing, whether we hurt their chances to do something else. What I want to do is to be better than the team we’re playing this Sunday.”
This week that is the Redskins. Next week it’s the Tennessee Titans, followed by the Indianapolis Colts and then the Cowboys.
The Giants are looking at their late-season surge as a potential building block. Shurmur believes it’s all connected. The experience of winning late this year can carry over to next season.
Beckham likes what he’s seen since the bye week last month.
“Since the bye week, we’ve playing at a very, very high level,” he said. “I just hope we can continue that. That is all we can do at this point. Leave the rest of the season up to everybody us and focus on what we can control, which is winning our game and seeing what happens. Not really much more to say than that.”