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Giants believed in themselves

Shaun Powell

January 21, 2008

GREEN BAY, Wis.

Giants head coach Tom Coughlin celebrates on the sidelines

Giants head coach Tom Coughlin celebrates as the winning field goal splits the uprights in overtime. (Getty Images Photo / January 20, 2008)

Football logic says the Giants don't belong in the Super Bowl, and at times during a chilly night at Lambeau Field, even they seemed to agree.

But they're going, warts and all. They're going to Arizona, site of Super Bowl XLII, because Eli Manning outplayed Brett Favre on sacred turf. Because the defense stayed strong at the right times. Because they didn't allow a myriad of mistakes to ruin the effort. Because they can't seem to shake success on the road. Because their determination cannot be questioned, especially now. And because kicker Lawrence Tynes tried, tried and finally tried again, making good on a 47-yard field goal in overtime.

Giants 23, Packers 20. And after the final gun, Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and a parade of other Giants stayed on the field, trembling from the 23-below wind chill and what they had just done, high-fiving several hundred faithful and frigid Giants fans who lined the first row of a suddenly empty stadium.

Next up are the unbeaten Patriots, who they met in the regular-season finale, in the game that meant so much, spiritually, to this postseason run. But right now, the journey to the Super Bowl is still fresh and worth savoring, especially after the Giants sealed an NFL-record 10th straight road victory in bizarre style.

"They believed in themselves all year long," co-owner John Mara said. "They never doubted each other."

No, they never did. Remember, the Giants began the season 0-2. Their head coach, who hadn't won a playoff game with the Giants, was under siege. Manning was making mistakes, the defense wasn't very good and the season began slipping away, strangely enough, just like the NFC Championship Game last night.

But give the Giants this: All year, they insisted they were alive even when doom seemed inevitable.

How do you explain, for instance, the road streak, claiming postseason wins in Tampa, Dallas and now G-G-Green B-B-Bay on the third-coldest night in Lambeau history?

"We can win anywhere," Strahan said. "Haven't we proven that?"

How do you explain Manning? For much of the season, he flat-lined, never too good or too bad, just average. Then, ever since the holidays, Manning has steered the Giants like a veteran, never putting his team in danger or coughing up the Big Turnover. One year after Big Brother won the Big Game, Eli is going. How convenient is that? Against the Packers, Manning completed 21 of 40 passes for 254 yards and no interceptions.

And how do you explain the Giants picking themselves off the turf after the mistakes began to multiply? A blown coverage allowed Favre to complete a 90-yard touchdown pass. A personal foul on Sam Madison allowed the Packers to score again. A holding call on the final drive of regulation erased an apparent game-winning touchdown run by Ahmad Bradshaw.

And then: two missed fourth-quarter field goals by Tynes. The Giants could've allowed those deflating setbacks to destroy their Super Bowl dreams; instead, those events only added spice to the journey, strange as it's been.

"We support one another," coach Tom Coughlin said. "Today was just another example of that. We never got down, we never quit. We just stayed focused and tried to win the game."

They did, and Tynes used that fuel to send the NFC championship-winning kick through the posts from 47 yards.

"I started running right after I hit it," he said. "Thank God we got another opportunity."

Yes, and now here comes another: the chance to make a place in history. The football world won't give them much of a shot against Tom Brady and Randy Moss and Bill Belichick. That makes sense. The Giants have one Pro Bowler and seemingly little else, except for momentum and, for some reason, a belief they belong.

"We do have one advantage," said Steve Tisch, the co-owner. "There were two pioneers watching today."

That would be Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, the former owners who died just over a year ago and left the team to their sons. Maybe it's true that nobody on Earth saw the Giants in the Super Bowl, but those two believers, as we know, are somewhere else.