The Giants head into next week’s contest at Green Bay on a high note, following their most impressive win of the season.
Sunday’s 24–2 beating of Atlanta saw all facets of Tom Coughlin’s game plan (save for kicker Lawrence Tynes’ missed 32-yarder at the end) operate on all cylinders—especially defense. “I think today we played outstanding defense and that set the tone for everything else that happened in the game. It was wonderful to see it and it has happened over the last two or three weeks of the season,” said Coughlin afterwards.
Even, the long-suffering running game continued its late-season renaissance with a combined 172 yards on 31 carries—compared to the NFL-worst 89 yards per game New York generated on the ground in the regular season.
The stellar-numbers even caught Coughlin off-guard: “Balance, you have to have balance and we were able to do that. I was surprised myself when I looked at the stats.”
With Eli Manning completing 23 of 32 passes for 277 yards and a career playoff-best three touchdowns, the Atlanta defense had to respect both the ground and the air game of the Giants, though neither happened on this day. “If we can get that run game going like we did in that second half, that opens up a lot of windows. For the passing game it makes the safeties come down and get in the mix and we feel with our receivers we will be able to hit some big plays,” said Manning.
As it turned the Giants didn’t need much balance on offense, thanks especially to their short-yardage defense that stuffed Atlanta on a crucial fourth-and-one early in the second quarter. The game-changing stop undoubtedly was still in Atlanta head coach Mike Smith’s head the next possession as Atlanta again faced a fourth-and-one in Giants’ territory but decided to punt the ball. “Well, we weren’t able to put the ball in the end zone and I think it was based on controlling the line of scrimmage. I think it was evident that we didn’t get it done throughout the ballgame even though our quarterback was sacked once, twice, officially,” said Smith.
Though the Giants did control the line, as Smith said, two sacks may not get it done next week at Green Bay.
Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers was sacked 36 times on the year (15 starts) for an average of 2.4 per game. In their only loss of the season, a 19–14 defeat in Kansas City, Rodgers was dropped four times by the Chiefs’ defense while the NFL’s leading quarterback completed less than half of his passes. “I think the last three weeks—do or die games for us—we really came out and put things together, but it still feels like we can play better and we probably will have to next week going up to Green Bay,” said Giants’ defensive end Justin Tuck.
Tuck is pretty observant. Atlanta has fizzled out in the playoffs three of their last four years while Green Bay is the defending Super Bowl champ. The Giants will need every bit of defense they can muster at Lambeau and they certainly can’t have any more missed field goals.
