Hakeem Nicks certainly obliged when he caught a 37 yard Hail Mary pass in the end zone with 0:00 on the clock in the second quarter to give the Giants a 20-10 lead over the once unstoppable Green Bay Packers. The Packers shot themselves in the foot all day; they looked rusty after taking the last two weeks off, made uncharacteristic mistakes, and topped off by terrible coaching decisions.
But you can’t take anything away from these New York Giants, who thoroughly dominated and broke the spirits of the defending Super Bowl Champions, turning a team that rallied off 13 straight victories this season into mere mortals.
With no disrespect to the San Francisco 49ers, who had a miraculous victory over the New Orleans Saints, Saturday, and the beat up Baltimore Ravens, who outlasted the Houston Texans, it is beginning to look and smell a lot like 2008. Fans in Tri-State area and Massachussetts can begin booking their flights to Indianapolis because the New York Giants and New England Patriots will likely square off in Super Bowl XLVI.If this does happen, it will be the first Super Bowl rematch since Super Bowl XXX when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys met for the third time in the Super Bowl with Dallas coming out on top 27-17.
In a year when the headlines have been dominated by the Packers incredible regular season, the record breaking season of Drew Brees, the mind-bending ways of Tebow-time, and Rex Ryan’s big mouth (what else is new), the 2011-2012 season could come down to two very familiar foes, who have quietly gone about their business.
For the Giants this season has felt a lot like 2007-2008. From a hideous start to the season, to questions about the job security of head coach Tom Coughlin to now, a team budding with confidence heading into its second NFC title game in four years the comparisons are there.
As many recall in 2007, the Giants headed into their regular season finale against the Patriots needing a good performance to bolster their confidence as they headed into the postseason. They lost that game 38-35, but many point to that loss as a turning point in their season, as the Giants headed into the postseason with a good head of steam.
This season, many pointed out to a 38-35 loss to the Green Bay Packers as the turning point of this season. The Giants showed they could hang with a tough team like the Packers, undefeated at the time, and from that point on the Giants played at a different level.
They matched the intensity of the New York Jets on Christmas Eve, beating Mark Sanchez into the ground and igniting the momentum for this ride. The Giants then rolled past Dallas for the division title and steamrolled Atlanta in the wild card.
Even these playoffs offer comparisons to the 2007-08 run. In ’07 the Giants beat up an NFC South team (Tampa Bay) in the wild card round. This year, they beat up on an NFC South team (Atlanta) in the wild card round. In ’07, the Giants clobbered the Dallas Cowboys, ranked number 1, a team picked by many to get to the Super Bowl in the divisional playoffs. This year, the Giants beat the 15-1 Packers, a number 1 seed, picked by many to get to the Super Bowl in the divisional playoffs.
And did I forget to mention the helmet catch? David Tyree meet Hakeem Nicks.
The Giants are rolling and look even better than that ball club.
The big difference, and this is a good thing for Giants fans, is Eli Manning. Manning is playing better than any quarterback right now. He has played with confidence and poise all season, throwing for 4,933 yards. Then in the divisional playoff vs. Green Bay, Manning was even better. He threw for 336 yards, completed two-thirds of his passes and three touchdowns including a clutch four yard touchdown to Mario Manningham to give the Giants a 30-13 lead late in the fourth quarter. The Packers had no answer for him. They couldn’t hit him, couldn’t rattle him, and couldn’t force him to throw a bad pick. Manning was flawless.
Defensively this Giants front seven is starting to look a lot like that ball club in 2007-2008. That team was led by a ferocious front of Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck, who blitzed their way to the top. This year’s club has picked it up big time down the stretch. They were much maligned for not getting enough pressure on the quarterback, now they are. Jason Pierre-Paul has been ferocious; Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyoria have battled injuries this year, but of late have picked up the slack. It was Umenyoria’s blitz off the left end that forced Aaron Rodgers to fumble the ball back to Big Blue Sunday night.
The Giants defense was incredible against the Packers.They made Rodgers uncomfortable, forced him to move out of the pocket when he didn’t want to, and forced him to run with the ball at moments when he probably would have liked to chuck the rock. Add to the fact that the Giants did a marvelous job stopping the run Sunday night. They held James Starks to 43 yards rushing and Ryan Grant to 33 yards. While Green Bay is not a great running team, the Giants have had their trouble stopping the run this year. They have turned that around too.
And here come the Giants, rushing to San Francisco with all of the momentum in the world. While the 49ers have put together a great defense and solid running game, it is hard to imagine them handling the New York Giants next week. The Giants are a team possessed; the only thing that can stop them is themselves.
Meanwhile in the AFC, it is funny that the Patriots have become the most ignored “good” team in the NFL. A team that went 13-3 and had a quarterback throw for over 5,000 yards, but you wouldn’t even know it; this is the franchise that set the standard for success over the last decade. Yet, here they are, like it or not.
On Saturday night, the Patriots ripped through the Broncos like a hot knife through butter as Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski set postseason records for their efforts. Brady was incredible, tearing apart the Broncos defense for 363 yards and setting a playoff record six touchdowns. Gronkowski, too, set a playoff record for tight ends with three scores, all of them coming in the first half.
The Patritots 45-10 whooping of the Broncos was the kind of effort we have seen from the Pats in their prime years when they advanced to four Super Bowls in seven years, winning three of them.
It goes without saying that this Patriots team is loaded with offensive firepower, from Brady to Gronkowski to Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, and Deion Branch leading the way. The big difference between this year’s Patriots and the ’07-’08 version is the fact that this team doesn’t have that legit deep threat, like they used to with Randy Moss, but they don’t miss him; they were third in offense this year. It should be interesting to see how the Baltimore Ravens handle this high powered offense with Ed Reed, nicked up at the end of the Houston game and playing on an injured leg.
While the Ravens offer the kind of defense that could slow down the Patriots, their performance against the Texans offers little comfort that they can match New England in a shoot out, if it comes to that. Joe Flacco has been horrible and was awful in Baltimore’s 20-13 victory. You know that Bill Belichick will have a solid plan to slow down Ray Rice and put pressure on Flacco. Plus, the Patriots defense has played a lot better in recent weeks led by Rob Ninkovich and Jared Mayo.
While a different sport, this Patriots team has that feel that the 2009 New York Yankees had.
At that time, the Yankees hadn’t won a World Series in nine years. Every year the Yankees were expected to get to and win the World Series, but it didn’t happen. When the Yankees breezed through the playoffs in 2009 to the World Series, only then did people recognize that the Yankees were back. That could be the case with these Patriots, who are the NFL team of the 21st Century. They haven’t won a Super Bowl in nearly eight years now. Could the Brady-Belichick duo be due for one more great ride into glory?
And if America does get a rematch between the Giants and Patriots in the Super Bowl, everyone will draw comparisons between that game and this one. Everyone will wait for the helmet catch. Everyone will wonder if Brady and Belichick have a master plan to get even. Everyone will be watching and waiting for the most anticipated sequel in Super Bowl history.
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