Will familiarity with Packers help Giants?

Justin Tuck used one word to sum up everything that the Giants' defense learned, took out of and accomplished in their Dec. 4 game against the Packers.

"Nothing," he said.

Nothing?

"We gave up 38 points."

Actually, that was progress. Just about a year earlier, they gave up 45 to the Packers at Lambeau Field.

The teams will square off in an NFC divisional playoff game Sunday, and the Giants are hoping the third time is the charm.

Despite Tuck's declaration, there actually was plenty to farm from that 38-35 loss to the Packers that extended the Giants' losing streak to four but somehow allowed them to believe they could compete against the NFL's top team.

In a league in which familiarity often results in a leveling of the advantages; in which the more often coaches and players watch an opponent, the better prepared they are; in which games are won or lost as much in videotape study and game-planning as they are on the field, knowing thy enemy is the key.

"When you play a team multiple times, you continue to study them, you continue to try to dissect and understand their offense and how they think," Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. "You'd like to think you have a better feel for the team than when you just play them one time."

From 1992 to 2004, the Giants faced the Packers once every three years. Then they met in the NFC Championship Game in January 2008.

That was the last time they faced the Packers until Week 16 of last season. When they play Sunday, it will be the third time the two teams have met in less than 13 months. The only other team the Giants have seen that often in the same span is the Redskins, and they're in the NFC East with the Giants.

None of that does the Giants any good, though, if they don't learn from their mistakes. In those two previous meetings, Aaron Rodgers completed 53 of 83 passes for 773 yards and eight touchdowns with only one interception. The Packers have won the last two games against the Giants by a combined score of 83-52.

"I think any time you have an opportunity to put the ball down, you have a chance to prove how good you are," Fewell said. "I think that after playing them twice, knowing a little bit more about them, we're up for that challenge to see if we can hold that guy down. It's a big challenge for us. He's one of the best players in the league."

Rodgers not only was the Packers' leading passer in the Dec. 4 game, he was their top rusher with 32 yards on four carries. That means the vaunted pass rush of the Giants will have to contain him.

"We've been here and we've played the Vicks and we're played the McNabbs," linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said of other mobile quarterbacks (although they are quarterbacks the Giants have had limited success against). "We understand as a group how to keep a quarterback in the pocket, how to get push up the middle, and then for everyone who is in coverage to come down once he scrambles. That's something we can adjust to in-game if he starts to run around a little bit."

"He's kind of like Houdini out there a little bit," defensive tackle Chris Canty said. "He avoids pass rushes, he avoids that initial surge. He can get out of the pocket and make plays downfield with his wide receivers."

Anyone who has seen any NFL highlights this season knows that. And in the last two games against the Giants, Rodgers has made enough plays to fill a personal highlight reel. But this third game in such a short span could be the real test for him.

Tuck said the Giants didn't learn a single thing the last time out.

But at the very least, they know whom they need to stop.

They know what Rodgers already has done to them.

"We want to find out,'' Fewell said, "what we can do on Sunday."