Confident Giants turn skeptics into believers

GLENDALE, ARIZ. - The New York Giants are a hot team, a confident team, a team with a Super Bowl swagger well beyond its 13-6 record.

It's almost hard to believe this is the same team that was 0-2 and trailing 17-3 at halftime in Week 3 at Washington.

"We played them in the second week of the season, and I thought they were done after that," said Packers quarterback Brett Favre, referring to Green Bay's 35-13 victory at Giants Stadium. "You have to give them credit for the way Eli [Manning] and [coach] Tom Coughlin and all those guys handled adversity this year."

The Giants bounced back from that 14-point deficit at FedEx Field to beat the Redskins 24-17. The same Giants defense that had allowed an NFL-high 80 points through the first two weeks forced a turnover that led to the game-winning touchdown, and then stopped Washington on four consecutive plays that started with first-and-goal from the 1 with 58 seconds left in the game.

The Giants were 1-2, but hardly a Super Bowl contender in the minds of even the most sympathetic analysts.

"Before the 2006 season, I thought they were a Super Bowl team, but not this year," said CBS analyst Phil Simms, a former Giants quarterback and Super Bowl XXI MVP. "Last year, their season blew up on them and they went 8-8. Then going into this year, I just figured how can they overcome all of that stuff? All the talk about Tom Coughlin and Eli, Eli, Eli ... I've never heard so much stuff in my life."

Like most people, Simms never jumped on board with the Giants until the postseason. There were the two losses to Dallas. The 3-5 home record. The 41-17 loss to the Vikings, in which Manning had three of four interceptions returned for touchdowns.

"Then they got hot, and it refreshed my memory of how much I liked them as a Super Bowl team the year before," Simms said. "I said, 'Hey, their offensive line does everything well and is very good.' I've said many times that offensive line is the dark secret in the NFL. And I also said, 'Hey, their defensive line is the best pass rushing line, without question, in the NFL.' "

Throw in three consecutive road playoff victories and, presto, maybe the Giants do have a chance against the heavily favored Patriots.

"I think they have a chance to win because when your strength is your offensive and defensive lines, that matches up against anybody, anywhere, any style," Simms said. "Those qualities work against everything."

When players, coaches and analysts have been asked for the one overriding key for the Giants on Sunday, the most popular answer has been to put pressure on quarterback Tom Brady.

The Giants have that ability. They led the NFL with 53 sacks and have the NFL's best trio of pass-rushing ends in Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck.

However, if the Patriots-Giants Week 17 meeting is any indication of what's to come, the Giants could be in deep trouble.

While the Giants have been applauded for their hard-fought 38-35 loss to the visiting Patriots, what tends to get overlooked is the fact Brady dropped back to pass 43 times and was sacked only once. He completed 32 of 42 passes (76.2 percent) for 356 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions on a cold December night in New Jersey.

The playing conditions on Sunday at the University of Phoenix Stadium will be nearly perfect. But that hasn't affected the Giants' swagger.

"They should be confident," Patriots left tackle Matt Light said. "They gave us all kinds of trouble in the regular season, and they're a lot better team now than they were in the regular season."