History Repeats Itself in Giants' Super Bowl Win

The New York Giants’ improbable run to the Super Bowl, culminating in yesterday’s 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots, was characterized by a remarkable number of similarities to the 2007-08 season. There were victories on the road over the top two seeds in the NFC: four years ago it was in Dallas and Green Bay, this season in Green Bay and San Francisco. The Giants were huge underdogs in the second round of the playoffs against the top seed each time, stunning the 13-3 Cowboys in 2008 and the 15-1 Packers this year. Both times the conference championship game went into overtime and both years it was won on a Lawrence Tynes’ field goal. The Super Bowl itself was similar in many ways to the one four years ago, chiefly Eli Manning orchestrating the game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter, the Giants scoring with less than one minute left on the clock, and their defense stopping the Patriots from scoring as time expired.

This season’s run was even more unlikely, in my view, after the Giants played their worst game of the season in week 15, at home, against the Redskins, leaving them at 7-7. They had to win their last two regular season games, against the Jets and Cowboys, to even make the postseason. In doing so, the Giants eliminated two hated rivals from postseason play.

Other similarities include the coming together of a defense which was embarrassed by the Saints in the middle of the season, receivers making important catches when they had to, and an anemic running game (a league worst average of 89 yards per game) finally contributing to several late season wins.

One cannot overestimate the importance of Eli Manning in the Giants’ success this season. He is not only the team’s most valuable player, but arguably the MVP of the entire league. Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady threw more touchdown passes and for more yards, but the Giants would have lost most of their games if not for Eli’s 15 fourth-quarter touchdown passes (an NFL record), which accounted for six of their nine regular season wins. Eli has finally become an “elite” quarterback, in a class with the other more famous trio, in the media center and circus of the country, and he has done it his way – with quiet confidence and humility, always giving his teammates credit for “stepping up and making plays,” to use the common language of the players.

Kudos for head coach Tom Coughlin, not my favorite Giants’ coach, to say the least. With two Super Bowl victories, he belongs up there with Bill Parcells in the Giants’ pantheon.

With his job probably on the line before the playoff run four years ago and this season, Coughlin got his team to give their best effort and play better than their opponents, who have arguably superior personnel. Former Giants’ GM Ernie Acorsi can be proud of his successor Jerry Reese, who is largely responsible for this season’s roster (only nine players were not drafted by him).

The disappointment inflicted by the Giants on their fans earlier in the season, which I wrote about a couple months ago after their close home loss to the Packers, has been extinguished. With two championships in the last five years, the Giants are second to none in pro football.