EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - The Super Bowl-champion New York Giants will play five primetime games and face seven playoff teams this season.
Three of the primetime games will be played in the first four weeks of the season with two being midweek contests, including the season opener on Sept 5, a Wednesday night meeting the Dallas Cowboys.
The NFL also has the Giants facing the Panthers on a Thursday night in the third week of the season and playing the Philadelphia Eagles 10 days later in a Sunday night contest.
The Giants will face the three NFC teams - Atlanta, Green Bay and San Francisco - they defeated in the playoffs. They also will have games with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Green Bay, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
New York won't have a bye until Nov. 18.
"We will have a week-in and week-out challenge, not only in who we play, but with the different elements of our schedule," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We play on four different days and we have five night games. Our first three games are Wednesday-Sunday-Thursday. We play two road night games early, come home for a week and then go to San Francisco. Our people are going to have to be really good about it."
The Giants ended a mostly ho-hum regular season with consecutive wins over the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys to snag the NFC East crown at 9-7. From there, they defeated the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC playoffs, before knocking off the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
