Wow! What a way to end the year. You have to be kidding me! While I understand the point that different teams should be taken on their own terms and comparisons can be misleading, the similarities between the 2011 Giants and the 2007 Giants are just too many.
This year ended exactly like 2007 did with a win over the favored New England Patriots who were led by a quarterback of which Eli is not supposed to live in the same league with. That interview in August was very interesting. Eli was out of his mind to even put himself in the same breath with Tom Brady even though he had beaten him in 2007 and took the MVP that was presumed to be Brady's by divine right.
In 2007 it was 17-14, this year it was 21-17. In both games the Giants one with a late drive led by Eli Manning with an improbable catch to make it possible. The David Tyree catch in 2007, the throw to Mannigham this year.
What does seem different about the two catches is that judging by what Chris Carter says-only one of the greatest receivers in NFL history, second if to anyone only Jerry Rice-this catch was a lot more to the credit of Eli-whereas 2007 was maybe a little more to Tyree-though Eli still deserved a good deal of credit.
In both games Elie, Coughlin and the Giants got the better of Brady, Bellichick and the Patriots-who they weren't supposed to be in the same league with.
In this year and 2007 the Giants had modest regular season records and then beat all the team with great records who were the favorites. Consider that the 2007 Giants were only 10-6.
This year's Giants had even fewer wins, only 9-7. Also point differential-which is a statistic often considered important in assessing a team's true quality-generally a 12-4 team that has only say a 40 point advantage is seen as being a lower quality 12-4 than one that has a 200 point differential.
Yet the 2007 Giants had a differential of only 22 points-373-351. This year's Giants actually had a negative differential (394-400).
In 2007 the one thing that first suggested what the team was capable was a 38-35 close loss to the Patriots at home in the final game of the year. The Pats needed the win to be the first 16-0 team. This year the Giants played the then 11-0 Packers-last year's Super Bowl champ-who would finish the year 15-1 and were this year's big favorite as the Pats were in 2007 and came just short by: the very same 38-35 score.
I mean c'mon. More uncanny similarities. The nadir of 2007 was a dismal loss in their 14th game to a 6-7 Redskins team playing for nothing but pride 22-9. The nadir of this year was another 13 point home loss to the 4-9 Redskins, 23-10. Both games pushed the Giants to the brink.
Lightning does strike twice sometimes. The Giants were considered a fluke in 2007. Are they still a fluke? I do see that Gary Meyers is already predicting Dallas to win the NFC East next year. You have got to be kidding. I mean what is is that is going to make Dallas beat out the Giants this year that they didn't have this year, last year, the year before, or in 2007 when they beat Dallas at home despite being big underdogs?
In fact this year's sweep of Dallas now gives the Giants 5 wins in the last 6 between the old rivals and 3 straight wins in Dallas. Over the long haul, the G-Men have now won 20 of the last 32 games going back to the second game of 1996. Other than the Giant Super Bowls that are now becoming such a habit-only San Francisco, Dallas and Pittsburgh have more Super Bowls now-nothing is more gratifying for me than the way we have played Dallas in recent years. There was a time when the Giants beat Dallas about once every give years-back in the 70s when I was growing up.
Between the YA Title age-1963 and 1980-after drafting Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms-the Giants had a total of 4 wins in 29 games against the Cowboys.
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