A familiar opponent for Eagles in playoff opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles have never beaten a team three times in a season. They’ll get the chance next weekend.
 
Thanks to the Giants’ 31-24 upset win over the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Eagles learned Sunday they’ll face the Giants in the conference semifinal round of the playoffs on Saturday at 8:15 p.m.
 
The Eagles had a 1st-round bye in the NFC playoffs, which they clinched with a too-close-for-comfort 22-16 win over the Giants at the Linc last weekend.
 
As the No. 1 seed, they face the lowest-seeded team remaining after wild-card weekend. Since the No. 7 Seahawks lost to the 49ers, the No. 6-seeded Giants are the lowest remaining seed in the NFC.
 
Had the Vikings won, the Eagles would have played the winner of tomorrow night’s Buccaneers-Cowboys game.
 
Now, the Buccaneers-Cowboys winner will face the 49ers in Santa Clara. The winners of those two games meet Jan. 29 at the higher seed’s stadium.
 
The Giants went 9-7-1 this year. Their .559 winning percentage is the lowest by an Eagles postseason opponent since 2006, when the Eagles faced a Giants team that went 8-8.

This will be the third time the Eagles open the playoffs against the team they played on the final day of the regular season.

In 2001, they beat Tampa 17-13 in Tampa on the final day of the regular season (already locked into the No. 3 seed) and beat them 31-9 at the Vet six days later.
 
In 2009, they lost to the Cowboys in Dallas 24-0 to finish the regular season and lost 34-14 six days later back in Dallas. 
 
The win Sunday was the Giants’ first postseason victory since the 2011 team won Super Bowl XLVI over the Patriots in Indianapolis. It was their first postseason victory without Eli Manning in 22 years – since the 2000 team beat the Vikings at Giants Stadium with Kerry Collins at quarterback.
 
The Eagles have won three straight over the Giants, 11 of 13 and 24 of the last 30 meetings going back to 2008. They’ve won nine straight at the Linc since a 15-7 loss in 2013 that Matt Barkley played most of at quarterback. They’re 15-6 all-time vs. the Giants at the Linc and 
 
This will be the fourth time the Eagles and Giants have met in the postseason. The Giants won in the wild-card round at the Vet in 1981 and in the conference semifinal round in 2000 at Giants Stadium. The Eagles have won the last two meetings – in the wild-card round at the Linc in 2006 and in the conference semifinals in 2008, also at Giants Stadium.
 
This will be the 10th time the Eagles have faced a team three times in the same season but the first time the Eagles won the first two matchups. 
 
Eight times, the Eagles and their playoff opponent split their two regular-season games, and they’re 4-4 in the postseason against those teams.
 
In 2000, the Giants swept the Eagles in the regular season and made it a 3-0 sweep in the playoffs, and in 2009 the Cowboys did the same.
 
The Eagles this year beat the Giants 48-22 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Dec. 11 and 22-16 at the Linc last Sunday.
 
In the 48-22 win, Jalen Hurts threw TD passes to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and rushed for 77 yards, Miles Sanders ran for a career-high 144 yards and the Eagles outgained the Giants 437-304. They held Saquon Barkley to 28 rushing yards on nine carries and led by as many as 34 points.
 
Last week, the Eagles built a 19-0 lead over a group of mainly backups and still led by 13 points before a late TD pass from Davis Webb to Kenny Golladay in the closing minutes.
 
The Giants have some familiar faces. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, the Eagles’ 4th-round pick in 2010, is the Giants’ offensive coordinator, and Mike Groh, the Eagles’ wide receivers coach in 2017 and offensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019, is the Giants’ wide receivers coach.
 
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and Giants coach Brian Daboll spent 2012 together on Romeo Crennell’s Chiefs staff, Daboll as offensive coordinator and Sirianni as wide receivers coach.
 
The Giants began the season 6-1 before finishing 3-6-1 over their final 10 games. From Week 8 through the end of the regular season, only seven teams had a worse record – the Titans, Texans, Rams, Jets, Cards, Colts and Bears.
 
Here’s a look at the 10 times in franchise history the Eagles have faced a team three times in a season:
 
1947
Regular Season
STEELERS 35, Eagles 24
EAGLES 21, Steelers 0
Playoffs
Eagles 21, STEELERS 0
 
1980
Regular Season
EAGLES 17, Cowboys 10
COWBOYS 35, Eagles 27
Playoffs
EAGLES 20, Cowboys 7
 
1981
Regular Season
Eagles 24, GIANTS 0
Giants 20, EAGLES 10
Playoffs
Giants 27, EAGLES 21
 
1990
Regular Season
WASHINGTON 13, Eagles 7
EAGLES 28, Washington 14
Playoffs
Washington 20, EAGLES 6
 
1992
Regular Season
EAGLES 31, Cowboys 7
COWBOYS 20, Eaglers 10
Playoffs
COWBOYS 34, Eagles 10
 
1995
Regular Season
COWBOYS 34, Eagles 12
EAGLES 20, Cowboys 17
Playoffs
COWBOYS 30, Eagles 11
 
2000
Regular Season
Giants 33, EAGLES 18
GIANTS 24, Eagles 7
Playoffs
GIANTS 20, Eagles 10
 
2006
Regular Season
Giants 30, EAGLES 24 [OT]
Eagles 36, GIANTS 22
Playoffs
EAGLES 23, Giants 20
 
2008
Regular Season
Giants 36, EAGLES 31
Eagles 20, GIANTS 14
Playoffs
EAGLES 23, Giants 11
 
2009
Regular Season
Cowboys 20, EAGLES 16
COWBOYS 24, Eagles 0
Playoffs
COWBOYS 34, Eagles 14

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