Indianapolis
Seriously, how could any New York sports team ever have become so supposedly cute and cuddly, like these Giants?
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Unlike seemingly the rest of the world, I’m not adopting them as the favorite — sentimentally or practically — in Super Bowl XLVI.
The Giants are still the team that lost four straight games in the middle of the season, once stood 7-7 and needed San Francisco’s substitute punt returner to fumble the ball twice in the NFC championship game just for them to reach Indianapolis.
The notion of a New York-based franchise continually being labeled an overachiever is just too much. Having the Giants stage an upset of previously unbeaten New England four years ago was a great story, but those guys used up all the miracles required to knock off the NFL’s most dominant franchise of this century.
If the Patriots had kept Eli Manning, David Tyree, Plaxico Burress and the others from producing that epic drive in suburban Phoenix, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. New England would be playing Sunday for a fifth championship in 11 seasons, making Bill Belichick and Tom Brady undoubtedly the greatest coach/quarterback combination in NFL history.
Instead, the Patriots lost that game, and everybody believes they’re permanently damaged. Not me. The Giants’ defensive players have done a lot of talking about rattling Brady. They must not have watched the film from Nov. 6, when the Patriots racked up 438 total yards against New York and lost (24-20) only because Manning bailed out the defense with another long, game-winning drive.
Until that moment, the Patriots had dominated the game. And Brady’s sure to play even better Sunday, because he’s motivated after being critical of himself in the AFC championship game and tired of hearing about how the Giants’ defensive linemen are in his head.
Tom Coughlin deserves credit for salvaging the Giants’ season, but I’m picking the coach who’s savvy enough to practice halftime. It’s true. Belichick covers everything, including the Super Bowl’s unique, 30-minute break — more than twice as long as the usual NFL halftime. He stopped short of having Madonna visit the team’s practice field Wednesday, but he acclimatized his players to the long intermission, then resumed practicing. That’s brilliant. That’s championship-level strategy.
It’s true that a couple of great plays by an unknown defensive back and a missed field goal enabled the Patriots to avoid overtime against Baltimore in the AFC title game. But that’s nothing compared with what the Giants have done in the playoffs. A desperation touchdown pass just before halftime radically altered the outlook of a divisional game at Green Bay, and so did a bouncing ball that brushed the knee of the 49ers’ punt returner in the NFC title game.
And while the Giants’ defense did a nice job overall against quarterback Alex Smith and the 49ers, tight end Vernon Davis got open for touchdown passes of 73 and 28 yards. Now comes New England with not one, but two outstanding tight ends. The Giants could not deal with Davis, so how will they cover both Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski?
This matchup looks a lot like the Super Bowl of seven years ago, when Philadelphia was the NFC East team opposing New England. Charlie Weis was calling his last game as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, before becoming Notre Dame’s coach. This time, Bill O’Brien is on his way to Penn State after the Super Bowl.
That’s the key historical coincidence in play in Indianapolis, as opposed to any repeat of the Giants’ stunning win four years ago. Belichick and Brady should have won that game by four points, after winning their previous three Super Bowls by three points each. Sunday, they’ll get the four-point victory that eluded them last time: New England 31, New York 27.
Twitter: @tribkurt
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