Two-game winning streak will help Giants’ players enjoy bye week

After a three-game losing streak had the New York Giants reeling at 2-3, they resolved to win their final two games before their Week 8 bye. Now that they accomplished that, putting themselves in position to have a chance at the playoffs in the season’s second half, they know the bye week will be more enjoyable.

“It’s good to come off a win. Going overseas, it’s a different week with all the travel and out of the country. It’s good to get a win there. Going into the bye week winning the last two is nice,” said quarterback Eli Manning. “We still know we have to make improvements and get better. It’s going to come down to how we handle the end of the season.

“It’s always good to have a break after a win. Having done it the other way, obviously that’s the bad thing about football. You always have a week between each game. Baseball, basketball, sometimes they’re playing the next day or they only have two days to think about it. Two weeks after a loss to think about it, that’s a long time. It’s nice to go into the bye week feeling good about the win.”

Linebacker and defensive captain Jonathan Casillas was enthusiastic about the Giants’ current position.

“You have got to love it,” he said. “It was a tough stretch in there where we dropped three in a row. But we are 2-0 in the last two weeks heading into the bye. [We had] a tough road trip in London, definitely a business trip out there and we handled business against a very tough NFC West team and now we are going into the bye with a winning record.”

Victor Cruz said he isn’t paying attention to the standings yet.

“I know that we're 4-3 and on a two-game win streak and want to continue going up,” he said.

Cruz added that the bye would “absolutely” be more enjoyable because of the back-to-back victories.

“You want to go into the bye on a positive note,” Cruz said. “You want to go into the bye understanding that you're coming off a two-game winning streak but you want to continue that trend. You want to relax but keep all of your focus on what's to come in the second half on the season.”