Different look, same attitude for Giants

INDIANAPOLIS -- Back in black? Sorry, it's at the cleaners.

That was the reason Justin Tuck gave when asked why he and his teammates did not repeat what they did four years ago, when the Giants showed up for the Super Bowl decked out in all-black suits. They were going to a funeral, they said at the time, ready to bury the Patriots' perfect season and their dynasty.

Men in Black II seemed like a natural for this week, one of the last strokes in similarities between the two seasons. But there were Tuck and his boys bounding off the airplane in Indianapolis Monday in a rainbow of tans, grays, blues and other hues. Tuck's starchy quip that his black suit was being laundered was just one of the reasons the Giants eschewed the pallbearer persona.

"[The season in] '07 and this year, it has its similarities, but what we did in '07 will not help us one iota come Sunday," Tuck said. "Two different teams, and hopefully this team can make a name for itself like we did in '07. We kind of wanted our own identity."

Tuck also had a warning for anyone who wanted to wear black to recapture that old Arizona magic.

"This game will not be won off what we did in '07 or what we did earlier this year," he said. "It will not be. And I hope we don't fall into the trap of believing that. [The Patriots] are playing better football, better team football, than they were playing in '07. But I think we're playing better team football than we were playing in '07, too."

The Giants may not have worn their black suits, but they came cloaked in the same brash confidence that they wore when they arrived in Arizona four years ago.

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"Right now we have a ---- mentality," safety Antrel Rolle said. "That's the way we like to look at it, that's the way we want to keep it, and we're very confident in our approach."

"It's a team that believes in itself, believes in our coaches," Tuck said on the topic. "Sometimes you can kind of get misunderstood for brashness, I guess."

Rolle admitted that the Giants' defense did not consistently perform well during the regular season, but they've put things together lately and it's helped with that attitude. They've gone from bad to nasty. But they've also gotten brainy.

"Most of all, I think we're very smart in our approach," Rolle said. "We have a clear understanding of what every guy is doing, not only yourself. We're a very intellectual team, and we take pride in that. But at the same time, when the bell goes off on Sunday, we're in attack mode. That's the way we look at it."

And it's not only the defense that has that outlook.

"We were confident [four years ago], we're confident now," guard Chris Snee said. "If that rubs people the wrong way, then so be it.''

Other than the wardrobe, the Giants desperately have been trying to keep things as close as possible to the schedule of their previous journey to the Super Bowl. That's one of the reasons Tom Coughlin had the team fly out Monday and not Sunday, as the Patriots did. Other than some minor logistical adjustments to the way meetings and classroom sessions will be orchestrated in the team hotel, he's basically photocopied the itinerary from that successful trip.

"This is the path that we followed four years ago," Coughlin said. "I thought it was a very good one."

It certainly had a very good result for him and the Giants once.