The Red Zone Report | Seven Giant Steps for Super Success

NFL

Seven Giant Steps for Super Success

By Eddie Griffin ⋅ February 3, 2008 ⋅ Subscribe to The Red Zone Report

The Giants, two-touchdown underdogs as they may be, are the only obstacle left in the way of a 19-0 season for New England.

What do the G-Men have to do to give themselves a fighting chance to culminate their unlikely playoff run by toppling the Pats to claim the Lombardi Trophy?

To get John Cyr’s take on the Patriots’ side of things, click here.

1. No careless mistakes: New York had New England on the ropes in Week 17, and a couple of key mistakes let the Patriots get back in it.

After the Giants went up 28-16, the Pats responded by driving down the field for a touchdown to pull within 28-23. On that drive, there was a key pass interference penalty on a 2nd and 8 from the Giants 14 that gave New England a first down at the 1, helping set up a Laurence Maroney touchdown.

Then, after the Pats took a 31-28 lead, the Giants could’ve gotten a game-tying or go-ahead score, but instead, took themselves out of it. On what would have been a first down run by Brandon Jacobs, Amani Toomer was whistled for a hold, and on the next play, Eli made his only real mistake of the game, throwing an interception to Ellis Hobbs.

New England scored a third straight touchdown to go up 10 with 4:36 to go, and the Giants’ goose was cooked. They can’t let that happen again if they want to win today.

2. Convert, convert, convert: If you have chances against the Patriots, you best make the most out of them.

In the AFC title game, San Diego got inside the New England 10 three times and were only able to get field goals each time. In what turned out to be only a nine-point game, those missed opportunities were massive.

3. Make Brady look human: Even the best are human, Brett Favre showed that in overtime against the Giants, and Brady showed that against the Chargers, throwing three interceptions. If the Giants defense can force Brady into a few mistakes, that will give the offense more opportunities to put up points, and you can never have enough of those against New England.

The thing about Brady and the Pats offense is that even if you slow down Moss, you’ve got to worry about Wes Welker, Donte’ Stallworth, or even Jabar Gaffney (or Kevin Faulk, or Ben Watson, or even the waterboy, who can suit up as well). So, it’s more of a matter of making sure you keep the damage at a minimum.

4. Slow down Maroney and Faulk: Given how many times Brady threw the ball in the regular season, you might have thought New England didn’t have any running backs.

But, Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk have been two of the biggest pieces of the Pats’ two playoff wins.

Maroney, who ran for more than 100 yards only three times in the regular season, ran for 122 yards against Jacksonville, and then again against San Diego. Faulk, who is more of a weapon in the passing game, was New England’s leading receiver against San Diego, with eight catches for 82 yards. Three of those eight catches came on the Pats’ clock-killing drive in the fourth quarter, when they held the ball for the final 9:13 and had four third-down conversions.

5. A steady diet of Jacobs and Bradshaw: In the Giants’ wins over Tampa, Dallas, and Green Bay, the duo of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw has combined for 318 yards, which has helped to take a lot of pressure off of Eli, and ensured that he hasn’t had to make all of the plays on his own.

6. Make plays on defense, especially in the key situations: It might be asking a little much of the Giants defense, as good as they are, to completely stop Brady’s Bunch, but they’ll get a passing grade if they can step up in third-down and red zone/goal-line situations.

The Patriots are 13 of 23 on third downs in the playoffs, and that’s where the Giants most need to be on point, because the quicker they get the Patriots off of the field, the better.

That’s also an area that helped the Giants in Green Bay. After allowing Tampa and Dallas to go a combined 19 of 30 on third downs, the Packers were stopped 9 of 10 times on third down, including on the overtime interception by Corey Webster that set up the game-winning field goal.

7. Efficient Eli: One of the biggest steps in Eli’s growth as a quarterback, and as a result, his team’s success, is developing consistency.

In the regular season, he was Rex Grossman-esque, throwing 23 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. He book-ended his regular season with four-touchdown performances, but was up and down in between.

But, he’s turned the proverbial corner in the postseason, completing 62.3% of his passes (53 of 85) for 602 yards, three touchdowns, and most importantly, no interceptions.

While those seven steps are the most important keys in terms of on-field actions, the biggest key for New York this evening is to keep a level head and not get fazed by anything that the Patriots do.

The Giants know that they can hang with, and for that matter, beat the Patriots, having come as close as they did only a few weeks ago. And, they know what they have to do (and not do) to put themselves in a favorable position again.

Besides, if they didn’t think they had a chance, wouldn’t they have packed up and left already, or better yet, not shown up?

So, here’s hoping for a great game, one that will justify me actually watching the game despite not having a rooting interest in it.

As for a Giants win? Well…