Giants on to NFC Championship: January 16, 2012
Say goodbye to the Cheeseheads for the year! The New York Giants came into Lambeau field and packed Greenbay 37-20 on Sunday, sending the 15-1 defending champions home. The impressive Giants victory marked the second time in four years that Big Blue has knocked the Greenbay Packers out of the playoffs. Fans may remember the 2007-08 season when they defeated Brett Favre and the Packers in the NFC Championship. The Giants did it again this time in the division series defeating a Packers squad led by Aaron Rodgers.
In fact, the New York Giants did not show any signs of fear or recognition of a highly favored 15-1 Packers team. Pregame speculation praised the numbers that Aaron Rodgers put up, and favored the high-powered offense of Greenbay. This is a team that is supposed to return to the Superbowl and be crowned victorious again, maybe even have a 1-loss season. The Giants came in and demolished all that. Their level of domination proved superb against a highly-predicted Greenbay team. Many speculate the by-week may have potentially hurt Rodgers and the Packers, and the New York Giants coming off hot was the right place at the right time.
Credit the Giant defense as they stopped a Packers offense that beat them earlier in the season. Much of what we are looking at is a different Giants team. This is not the same team that we saw earlier in the year. Osi Umenyiora put it, "It feels good, where we came from, all the doubting all the hatred, we came in and pulled this game out". This team is playing with heart, this team is playing with fire and passion. Give credit to the players and especially credit defensive coach Perry Fewell whose defense stopped a quarterback with 45 touchdowns this season. Umenyiora's reaction when asked about the superb defensive performance, "Coach Fewell, he believed in us and we believed in him, I can't say enough about this team, we are going to keep on fighting". Giant defense forced 3 fumbles against the Packers squad including two outstanding returns off of Packers offside kicks. Osi Umenyiora and Michael Boley combined for the 4 sacks on Aaron Rodgers. The Giants showed some impressive defense even despite two critical and seemingly unfair calls in favor of Greenbay made by the officials during the game. There is no question Big Blue is playing with alot of confidence, the coaches, the players all seem in sync with one another right now, there should be no reason why the Giants should stop right here.
As for Eli Manning and the offense they scored 37 points against a cheese defense as this game seemed to have displayed. Taking nothing away from the Packers defense as they did play the Giants tough, Manning was on his game. Eli threw for 330 yards, which is the first time in his career he has thrown over 300 yards in a game let alone impressively in a playoff game. Him and his receivers were on the same page and played outstanding. There was no bigger play then the final 10 seconds before the half when Eli Manning hurled a 37-yard Hail Mary into the endzone which landed into the hands of Hakeem Nicks for a touchdown with defenders all around him. "Pretty confident in my hands, as long as I can compete to go get it" Nicks responded about the exciting catch. He added that it was his first time making such a hail Mary play. It gave the NY Giants a 20-10 lead at the half, and the Giants went on to roll over the Packs. Nicks ended the day with 7 receptions and 165 yards including a 66-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The offense played superb led by Eli Manning and touchdowns to Mario Manningham and Brandon Jacobs later in the second half to seal it. They came into Greenbay and destroyed this powerful Packers team.
Giants fans reek the rewards of redemption and revenge against the Greenbay Packers especially if it meant taking them out of the playoffs. However the New York Giants are not done, they will head to San Fran next week to take on another behemoth in this NFL postseason. Mario Manningham says the Giants are ready to take on the 49ers, "Oh we're going back, we're going back.. with confidence too" he added. There is no doubt the New York Giants would love a rematch against Alex Smith and the 49ers that defeated them earlier on in the season. No question it just gets harder and harder in the playoffs as the San Francisco 49ers showed on Saturday that they are a much better and superior team than they were during the regular season. Still to many Giants fans and the Giants community, there are shades of the 07' season hanging in the air. They are one big game away from that possible deja vu!
To San Fran,
B.C
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