Thriving as Underdogs
Despite being labaled underdogs, the Giants have continued to win in the playoffs
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com
February 2, 2008
If a football team could win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Giants would certainly be nominated for their performance in the week leading up to Super Bowl XLII.
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| The Giants defense will look to pressure Patriots QB Tom Brady early and often. |
No one plays the underdog role better than the Giants.
They delivered their lines perfectly this week, showing proper respect for their opponents, the undefeated New England Patriots, while repeating to anyone who would listen
that they believe they can win the game. Despite their impressive presentation, it’s likely the Giants convinced few outsiders that they can win the game.
In the opinion of a vast majority of the sporting media gathered in the Arizona desert, not to mention the football public throughout the country, the Giants’ primary function tomorrow is to play a behind-the-scenes role in the Patriots’ coronation. The Giants are to show up, make a few plays, put up a fight for perhaps the first half, then serve as supporting performers as the Patriots complete the first 19-0 season in NFL history.
The only drawback to that neatly-packaged routine is the Giants intend to make significant revisions to the script.
“We’re here to get one thing,” linebacker Antonio Pierce said, “and that’s the Lombardi Trophy.”
That prize, of course, goes to the Super Bowl winners. And the Giants are titanium-solid in their belief that they can win the game and add a third trophy to the Giants’ case,
joining those won in Super Bowls XXI and XXV. Beyond their locker room, they are seen as the Patriots’ chosen victims. Inside, they are confident they will shock the world.
The Giants, of course, have spent more than a month as the dangerous underdog. In the regular season finale, they owned a 12-point third-quarter lead before falling to the Patriots, 38-35. They weren’t expected to win any of their three postseason games, but they dispatched Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay with virtuoso road performances to reach the Super Bowl.
Give or take a point or so, most oddsmakers have the Giants as a two-touchdown underdog in the Super Bowl. It’s like no team expected to lose could be more comfortable. After so much unanticipated success, the Giants derive much of their motivation from being underdogs.
“It’s interesting, because much has been said about that,” Coach Tom Coughlin said. “Whether or not I have to utilize this verbally to the team or not, it’s there. It’s very much a part of it. We have been underdogs pretty much every time we’ve played. We’ve gone on the road and been underdogs, and been underdogs at home. So it’s kind of been a natural thing. The main theme that comes out of that for our team is having something to prove. We always have something to prove and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
At this point, the players probably wouldn’t know how to react if they were installed as favorites.
“Everybody is saying now that we don’t have a chance, but with us 53 players, we have a chance,” running back Brandon Jacobs said. “I like the chances. I like being the odd man out. I like being the underdog. I like being all that stuff. I like being the team that is terrible. I like the team that is the worst team in the league as people have labeled us, but we are one of the best teams in the league. We didn’t do it pretty, but we are here and we have a chance to win this thing.”
“This is the NFL,” defensive end Osi Umenyiora said. “There should be nobody who isn’t given a chance to win. We are professional athletes. Anything can happen on any given day. People are acting like it would take lightning to strike in order for us to win. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think we have a good chance. They’re obviously a good football team, but I don’t think we should be shaking in our boots because they are 18-0 or we shouldn’t even be on the football field with them.”
While confident in their chances, the Giants have great admiration for the Patriots. Of course, it’s impossible not to. No team has ever started play in September and reached February without a loss. The Patriots have the most prolific offense in NFL history (75 touchdowns and 389 points), the league’s Most Valuable Player in Tom Brady (a record 50 touchdown passes), big-time weapons like Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk, a stout and stubborn defense and outstanding special teams.
“They could be the best team ever - who knows?” defensive end Michael Strahan said. “An 18-0 record is amazing any way you slice it or dice it – amazing. I take my hat off to them. I cannot sit here and say that it is not amazing and that we are going to blow those guys out. You have to respect those guys. What they have done, we have never seen. There is a reason for it. They are 18-0 and I don’t even think about the consequences at the end of the game with their record. I think about ours, to be honest. I think everyone here approaches that the same way. We are setting our own history. We have guys here who are hungry to win, guys who want to be champions, guys who worked hard to be champions, guys who want that ring, and guys who are willing to do what it takes to get it.”
History is a word that was mentioned a lot this week. The Patriots will obviously make history if they complete a perfect season. No team has ever won 19 games in a single season. The NFL’s last undefeated team was 1972 Miami Dolphins, who were 17-0. Should New England win, the Patriots will set a standard no team can ever beat and perhaps ever match.
That’s why a Giants victory will go down in the annals as one of the greatest triumphs ever in pro football.
“Oh yeah, we have thought about that,” said wide receiver Amani Toomer, who joins Strahan as the Giants’ only remaining players from the Super Bowl XXXV loss to Baltimore. “The Patriots are trying to make history and we are trying to make history. I think we have more people on our side because no one wants to see an undefeated team. It makes everyone look bad, in the whole NFL. I think a lot of other teams are going to be behind us because we have the last shot at them. Hopefully, we will take advantage of it.”
“One way or the other somebody is going to make history,” cornerback Sam Madison said. “How long has it been, the last team to go undefeated and win a championship? The Miami Dolphins. It doesn't happen very much. We go back a few years ago, Peyton Manning, everybody thought that he had an opportunity to take his team undefeated. I remember Plaxico’s (Burress) last year in Pittsburgh, when they went 15-1. They were very close. It is hard to go undefeated in this league and with this team right now knocking on the door, having an opportunity to do it, there is a lot of people looking and wanting and hoping that they go undefeated. This game one way or the other, win or lose, somebody is going to make history. If we stop them, we’ll be on that side of history.”
More importantly, they’ll have a championship they can savor the rest of their lives. It’s doubtful no team has ever won a Super Bowl by being underdogs in each of its final five games.
“We played them before and that gave us a little perspective as to what kind of team they are,” center Shaun O’Hara said. “This is their last chance to preserve their perfect record. And this is our one and only chance to spoil it.”
*Halftime at most NFL games lasts 12 minutes. But halftime at the Super Bowl is scheduled to run 28 minutes. Coughlin was asked what he plans to do with the extra time.
“We’ve already decided how we would handle it,” Coughlin said. “There will be a certain amount of time that the players will be with the trainers and on their own. Then, at a little later time slot, we’ll move in with the coaches. There is more time, twice as much, plus, what you normally have, and you certainly have to deal with it, just as you have to deal with pre-game.”
NOTES
*Many Giants said they will have more butterflies that usual tonight and tomorrow, but not so much that they won’t be able to sleep or function. Plaxico Burress said he will have a typical night.
“I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life,” Burress said. “Saturday night, I’m going to take a nice shower, lay down in bed and sleep like a baby. I’m not going to lose any sleep. That’s when I go out and play my best - when I get some good sleep before the game. We’re all ready to go. There will be a few jitters, stepping onto the field on Sunday, but as far as myself on Saturday night, I’m going to lay down and wake up and say, ‘It’s game day.’”
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