This weekend the Eagles face the reigning super bowl champs, NFC East rival, and best team in the NFC the NY Giants in what is a must win if the Birds wants to keep their playoff hopes alive. To catch up on all things G-Men I talked with Ed over at the great Giants blog Big Blue View. My answers to his 5 questions will be up over there.

Do I really have to answer this one? I am Plax-ed to the max. Anyway, here goes. The numbers, shown here by ESPN,  and the 11-1 record with Plax not playing a big role, tell you the Giants should be just fine. They have lots of other players, and Eli has matured. If the Giants do not win another Super Bowl I don't believe Plax not playing will be the primary cause. That said, the Giants have not played an important game without him. They don't win without him in Green Bay last year, and he did make the game-winning Super Bowl catch. We are just going to have to find out. Of course, if any of the Giants remaining wide receivers get hurt I will be cursing Burress.

No, I really don't. I thought the Giants thoroughly dominated that game and it should not have been close. If I remember correctly the Giants made a couple of stupid turnovers that made the game much closer than it should have been.

I doubt that anyone gets total rest. I do think you might see some guys like Ahmad Bradshaw get more carries, and maybe Mario Manningham, Sinorice Moss and some of the backup linemen get some snaps. I doubt Tom Coughlin will intentionally take his foot off the gas and allow the Giants to relax.

Pierce is a guy who's value/ability we have been debating lately, even before the Burress incident. He is a good player, but not an elite one physically or in terms of the number of plays he makes. What he does incredibly well is quarterback the defense, make the right calls and get guys in the right places. I don't think Pierce is going to face any discipline from the league, at least that is the sense I get right now. The only thing he might really be guilty of is panicking when the gun went off. I really think the absolutely indespensable player on the Giants' defense is Justin Tuck. Without him, that's not an elite front 7.

Who is currently the most underrated Giant?

Hmm, I could answer that a bunch of ways. Let me answer it this way -- by telling you who I think the most 'disrespected' Giant is. That is, still -- unbelievably to me -- Eli Manning. When are teams going to realize that this is not the 'old' Eli? This is a top-notch, upper echelon NFL quarterback who can slice you up if you dare him to. That is what the Redskins and Cardinals did the past two weeks, stacking the line of scrimmage, playing man-to-man on the wide receivers and putting the game in Eli's hands. He killed both teams, and he will continue to do it until teams get the message.  This is a mature quarterback who knows what he's doing and has a ton of weapons now, not the scared kid from a couple of years ago.