On Leadership, Heritage, Defense and Fun

Even the gods of football have to be tired of the Patriots same sad old song. Team, team, team, ad nauseum, that same tired old injury report, Bruschi, Vrabel, Seau, yada yada, and of course Brady Brady Brady. It's that sameness of spirit that'll beat the Patriots Sunday night. It's too mechanical, too rehearsed, a team of automatons led by a sociopathic coach who may have assembled a team that seems a little long on experience and a little short on enthusiasm.

The Giants, on the other hand, are a team coming off three impressive victories, all on the road, and with their season on the line in each one. Along the way, they beat an old nemesis, Jeff Garcia, in the first playoff game, then they beat a team to which they had twice lost during the regular season, then they beat another team that thrashed them in the regular season, a team with a Hall of Fame quarterback on a tradition-rich field in zero-degree weather.

If you truly do believe in the team concept, then you have to pick the Giants on Sunday. In Tom Coughlin, they have a head coach who has changed his coaching style to accommodate and strengthen his team. In Kevin Gilbride, they have an offensive coordinator with the guts to listen to his players to improve the offense. In Steve Spagnuolo, they have a defensive coordinator with the guts to adjust his schemes to the strengths of his players, to play bump-and-run with the most dangerous receivers in the game, to blitz when four men alone couldn't get it done.

They have no super-model spouse at quarterback, just Eli Manning, a guy with a strong football heritage, a guy who does what he needs to do to win, a guy who'd love to get a ring to match his older brother's, a guy who'd love to laugh with his Dad after still one more huge win. Records aren't important to him. He was just as happy after a win in Buffalo, one in which at least five of his passes were dropped and his rating was about 32, as he was after his 132 qb rating in the Cowboys victory.

The Giants have other leaders too, hungry men all, such as Antonio Pierce on the defense, who held up two men at once until help could arrive against the Packers to prevent a sure touchdown. Michael Strahan leads a group of strong defensive linemen, athletic types who stop the run and the pass too. On the offense, Amani Toomer has played like a man possessed in these playoffs, making seemingly every big third-down catch, and who remembers how bad it felt to lose a Super Bowl.

Another thing weighing heavily in the Giants favor is defense. The Patriots with their high-flying offense have not been particularly impressive on the defense. Although they only gave up 12 points to the Chargers, it was to a Chargers team playing without their premier back, LaDainian Tomlinson, and with a hobbled quarterback. Previous to that game, they surrendered 20 points to a Jacksonville team that had a rather one-dimensional offense compared to that of the Giants. And, of course, prior to that game, the Giants scored 35 against them.

The Giants defense has been opportunistic as well as good. Against Dallas, it was the defense that made two consecutive 4th quarter stops to ruin the Cowboys year and versus the Pack, it was a key 4th quarter interception against Bret Favre that carried the G-Men to the Super Bowl.

Of course, the Giants did indeed lose to the Patriots in that first encounter but it was without one of their emerging stars, the powerful and speedy Ahmad Bradshaw, who has been one of the keys to the Giants victories in their playoffs run. Not only has he been a threat to score every time he touches the ball, he has, more importantly, helped eat up the clock, something the Giants were unable to do against the Pats in the second half of the first game. The Giants also had some gross misfortune in a blown coverage after the injury to Sam Madison that resulted in that long touchdown pass to Randy Moss, the fastest, strongest,most dangerous receiver in the NFL today, just ask him.

There is also the fun factor. The Giants are a heavy underdog, they can play fast and loose. They don't carry the weight of fantastic expectations. The Patriots carry the burden of all those consecutive wins and, significantly, they do seem rather afraid of losing this game. They realize what they're facing and don't want to blow this most important game of all, the one that could render all their previous records rather meaningless. They seem rather tight in their interviews and it wouldn't be surprising if they play on Sunday as tentatively as they interview.

There is some precedent, of course, for heavy underdogs winning Super Bowls, two significant ones belonging to New York teams. The Jets were 17-point dogs to the Colts back in that most famous Super Bowl of them all, the one responsible for the merger of the AFL and the NFL. These same Giants, in fact, were underdogs to that Buffalo Bills team who were 7-point favorites in Super Bowl XXV, the Bills who had beaten the Giants once that season already, the Bills who had scored 51 in their last outing against the Raiders.

The Giants won that day with a power running game and some magnificent defense, an imaginative defense that changed defensive formations throughout the game. The Giants controlled the ball, and, by the time the Bills figured out what was happening to them, it was too late.

I think the Giants will once again win a final encounter. Any Giant could be the hero, Manning, or Strahan or Toomer. But it could also be Jacobs or Bradshaw or even Kevin Boss. It could even be Cory Webster. But the G-Men will get it done.