POSTED: Friday January 9th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GIANTS NOTEBOOK, JANUARY 9, 2009
By Michael Eisen
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants’ two performances this season against the Philadelphia Eagles could not have been more different if imposters had worn their uniforms for one of them.
On Nov. 9 in Philadelphia, the Giants gained 401 yards, ran for 219 of them and owned the ball for a season-high 39:10 in a 36-31 victory. Four weeks later in Giants Stadium, they totaled just 211 yards, ran for only 88 and had a season-low time of possession of 25:06 in a 20-14 loss.
Sunday afternoon, the longtime NFC East combatants will meet for the third time this season in an NFC Divisional Playoff Game in Giants Stadium. The winning team keeps its championship dreams alive. The losers go home.
The Giants, 12-4 in the regular season, own the conference’s top seed. Philadelphia, 10-6-1 including last week’s Wild Card victory in Minnesota, is No. 6, a disparity that will mean nothing once they take the field. Each team will incorporate new wrinkles into its game plan, but they know each other so well real surprises should be rare. The game will instead be decided by execution, desire, intensity, a break or two, and making a play at a critical juncture in what promises to be a taut, down-to-the-wire contest.
“Since I have been here, really the last four years, it seems like every game we have played we have come down to the fourth quarter,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “A few plays decide whether you win or lose. So it has always been tough. We have had high scoring (games), we have had low scoring. We have just had a mix of all sorts of different types of games. But it is always a physical game.
“This is exciting. This is what the playoffs are all about – playing the big-time games and playing teams that you see twice a year. They know what we do, we know what they do. So it is just a matter of execution and whoever is going to play the best football is going to win.”
“I don’t think anybody has to do anything to get up for this game,” cornerback Corey Webster said. “I think it is already built up, everybody knows what is at stake. I just think each team is going to be prepared and ready to go and they are going to be very excited and our guys are going to be up for the challenge this weekend.”
The Giants have thrived in this crucible before. A year ago, they won postseason games as underdogs in Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay, then upset heavily-favored and undefeated New England in Super Bowl XLII. Then they were the hunters. Now they’re the hunted, the conference’s top dogs and the defending champs that everyone would love to knock off.
Does a different perspective mean a new approach?
“Absolutely not, you still prepare for every opponent,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “You still practice as hard as you can, you still study as much tape and the only different approach is that we don’t have to put on a suit and get on a plane on Saturday. We still feel that a lot of people are picking the Eagles, honestly. I think they are the hot team. They are the ’08 version of the Giants. I don’t know what happened, we’re still here and we’d like to be the only Giants around. It’s a situation where we still feel a little bit of a slight. We’re the number one seed and at home, but a lot of people have faith in the Eagles. They are a good team, but we are still confident in our ability and we feel that if we can play our best then we should win the game.”
This is the third year in a row the Giants will face a division opponent in the playoffs. Two years ago they lost a heartbreaker in Philadelphia and last season they knocked off the top-seeded Cowboys. Because the rivalries in the NFC East are so fierce, they were among the most intense and competitive games of their respective postseasons.
“It definitely makes it a lot more personal, I think, when you play a team in your division,” said wide receiver Amani Toomer, the only Giants player remaining from the divisional round victory over the Eagles in 2000. “It is a different thing when you play against another team. We are very familiar with them. There is nothing that we can hide, there is nothing that they can really hide that they are going to do. I just think it is going to be a really physical game and probably will be a real fun game to watch.”
“You build a rivalry,” middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “You have people that you don’t like, dislike, matchups, everything. You are tired of one another. It is like training camp, when you face each other all of the time – you go against Brandon Jacobs, you start to dislike him. It is no different when you face a divisional team for the third time in the playoffs. You start having even a little bit more anger and dislike for them.”
Guard Chris Snee said, “There’s no difference this year. There’s a strong dislike for one another. Every time you have a chance to knock out a divisional opponent, one that you don’t like, you get up for these challenges.”
Those feelings are exacerbated for the Giants by their poor performance last month against Philadelphia. They entered the game leading the NFL in rushing yardage and points and they could neither run nor score. The Giants put their only offensive touchdown on the scoreboard with 15 seconds remaining. The game was the lone blemish on the Giants’ 7-1 home record.
Now the Giants want to transform that disappointment into positive energy.
“We definitely got exploited in some areas and we give them all the credit,” defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. “But we know when it came down to it we didn’t play a good game, we didn’t execute well and we definitely had to get that taken care of. But when it comes to this week, it’s a new week, we have new life and everybody has to win this to move on.”
“Our performance last time was unsettling to us,” said Justin Tuck, the end on the other side. “This is our opportunity to rectify that.”
Physically, they are set up to play their best. Many of the aches and pains that surface during the long season disappeared during the bye week. The Giants are rested and recharged. All 53 players on the roster practiced yesterday and today.
The team’s excitement and intensity is personified in Brandon Jacobs. The 265-pound back, who rushed for 1,089 yards this season, missed three of the final six games with a knee injury, a problem that forced him out of the last Eagles game in the third quarter after only 10 carries. Jacobs has scarcely been able to sit still this week as he anticipates returning to the field and challenging the Eagles defense.
“I know what I have to do – it is the divisional playoffs, for crying out loud,” Jacobs said. “We are still playing football and all our games are at home. So you can’t ask for a situation better than that. I want everybody to be wired. I want everybody to be champing at the bit because they (the Eagles) are an hour and a half down the Turnpike. Those guys are ready to play. They have been playing very, very good football lately. So we are going to have to match their intensity.”
“We wouldn’t want it any other way,” Tuck said. “It’s a division foe in our house and the winner goes home.”
That should make for a fun and memorable afternoon of postseason football.
*The Giants left the comfort and warmth of their bubble and practiced on the stadium field today.
“We wanted to be outside,” Tom Coughlin said. “I was going to get outside yesterday, but I didn’t think it was anything we could get done yesterday in that weather. I wanted to come outside and get the players out here and get it as close as we can to game time. It is game time and the weather as it will be on game day.”
*Coughlin said he was pleased with the players’ work this week.
“They were serious, they were focused,” he said. “Quiet in the meetings and then excited when they got on the field. They worked well. It was good energy, good enthusiasm.”
*Kicker John Carney will get his first taste of Giants Stadium at playoff time. The Sunday forecast is for temperatures in the low 30s, a chance of snow showers and the ever-present Giants Stadium winds.
“I’ve played here before in December with other uniforms on,” Carney said. “But now I have the advantage of working throughout the week here in the stadium and working with Jeff Feagles and Lawrence (Tynes) and learning the winds and the ins-and-outs of the stadium. That has been a big help.
“You have to work with the weather and understand through your pregame and the conditions what your expectations should be and what your ranges are.”
*Tuck and Snee were among the 15 first-timers to The Associated Press 2008 NFL All-Pro team. The team was chosen by a nationwide panel of 50 sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the NFL.
“I think that’s kind of like the Pro Bowl in terms of being singled out as one of the elite players in the league,” Tuck said. “You always try to reflect back on why you make things like this and for me personally it is because I have a great surrounding cast – my teammates, coaches and things of that nature. I don’t look at it as an individual award. I look at it like a symbolic award for this team.”
Center Shaun O’Hara, fullback Madison Hedgecock and Carney finished second in the balloting at their respective positions.
O’Hara and defensive tackle Fred Robbins were named to Sports Illustrated’s All-Pro team.
*Tuck (lower leg/knee) and linebacker/long-snapper Zak DeOssie (back) are the only players on the Giants’ injury report and they are listed as probable.
For the Eagles, guard Shawn Andrews (back) will not play. Fullback Dan Klecko is doubtful with a shoulder injury. Tackle Jon Runyan (knee) is questionable. He did not practice today. Eight players are listed as probable, including running back Brian Westbrook.
*Due to the limited number of parking spaces near Giants Stadium, the Giants and the NJSEA are urging fans who attend Sunday’s game to carpool and use mass transit. Fans are reminded that only those ticket holders with pre-paid parking permits will be allowed on the sports complex grounds. Those fans without parking permits will be directed to satellite parking and take shuttle busses to Giants Stadium.
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