Currently the New York Giants find themselves atop of the NFC East by 2 games...

We lost to the Redskins, Seahawks and played a very close Dolphins game (closer than any of us care for) so I ask you all, what is a hard game and what is an easy game for the Giants - I still don't know the difference.  

This is why I'm not worried of the upcoming "brutal" schedule. I said my peace already on my previous post on how I feel about the schedule, for this week I want to consider what are the critical games to win and what's the minimum the Giants need to make the playoffs.  Of course winning the division is the goal (too soon for me to think about the top 2 seeds) but we've only completed week 8 and I want to leave something to discuss in upcoming  weeks.

So I  believe the NY Giants make the playoffs for sure with 10-6.
That might sound like a big obvious to some people but I make that statement because I've been running into a number of people that believe they HAVE to win 11 to make it.
I'm sure you can make a valid argument that 11 is needed to win the division considering this is the NFC East but as far as making the playoffs I don't buy that. Yes, last year we won 10 and didn't make it but that's not the norm, that's the exception. 8/10 times 10 wins gets you the playoffs.  I do believe the Giants need to defend the house and win the NFC East division games at home, doing that would mean we swept the Eagles, so no matter if the birds win 10 games, we still make playoffs. (basically what they did to us last year).

Must Win games: 49ers, Jets, Division Home Games = 10 - 6
Please don't mistake this post for advocating the Giants should shoot for 10 wins, I want them to win every single game, I'm only trying to forecast whats the min that gets them to the playoffs.
Don't forget to make your vote and add your 2Cents in the comments section.

Due to the overwhelming number of you who voted to see the charts updated weekly I have the charts below.

I tweaked a few things to try to make it clearer as there was about 9% of you who indicated the charts are too confusing to understand. That's right I still care about the 9% of you. 

A major change was the order of the NFC East teams. I know I am going to catch some heat for this but as one viewer suggested this is the reason why.... This chart should represent last years end of season standings.
The "separate 2 games" are based on the standings of last year.
The other reason why I want to keep this order is because it reminds me, and it should remind all of us what the Giants need to get back to, that is being #1 in the division!. Giants need to take back the NFC East this year!

Once again the chart above should reflect what Willgfass' post explained. The NFL doesn't use a lottery or names out of a hat system to figure out the schedule - instead there's a systematic process that dictates what the 8 common games will be for each division in football. This year the NFC East is going against the NFC West and AFC East.

There is also a reason why the Giants face GreenBay and the Saints. The 2 separate games for the NFC East is against the NFC North and NFC South. The Giants finished 2nd place therefore face the teams that finished 2nd.

Here is where I think the 9% of folks are getting confused. The Division chart works differently then the 2 previous charts. I personally think its a thing of beauty because it reminds me of the multiplication "cheat" chart that was behind my notebook in elementary school. Click for image.

Ah but I digress, so anyway the previous 2 charts above had WON or LOST reflected for the teams on the column header but we can't do that here.  This is because our  division is also represented in the rows. Instead the cells are color coded to represent which team won the game.  The teams on the column header represent the Home team and the teams on the left represent the visiting team. So what you end up with is 3 games for each team away and 3 games for each team at home. Orange box represents the win/loss for the away team and yellow box represents the win/loss for the home team - add them up and you have the division totals for each team. If you're still confused try clicking on the link above that says image.