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The day before his 24th birthday, Hakeem Nicks celebrated by dancing on, over and all around the Packers in last year’s NFC Divisional Playoff upset by the Giants that set the stage for the grand finale in the weeks that followed.
Nicks recalled it as “a great weekend for me, a birthday weekend actually too, it was an overall good weekend. Most importantly we got the win and went on to the NFC Championship Game, that’s the most joyful thing about it.’’
Now Nicks wants to spread some of the joy that has been bottled up for so long all over the Packers, again, when these NFC powers meet Sunday night at MetLife Stadium. Nicks, his teammates, the Giants coaching staff and fans of the team have all been waiting for Nicks to break out and, ever so slowly, he is showing signs this could actually be the week.
“We just want to get back to playing great as an offense,’’ Nicks said. “We got to get back to that high-flying offense we’re capable of being.’’
There is no “great’’ and no “high-flying’’ without Nicks.
He has been a shell of himself ever since he got his surgically repaired right foot stepped on during a vintage 10-catch, 199-yard eruption against the Buccaneers in the second game of the season. When he was ready to return, his left knee swelled up. Nicks missed three games and spent the next four wearing his familiar No. 88 jersey, but not at all resembling one of the league’s most feared receivers.
Two Sundays ago in Cincinnati, Nicks caught nine passes for 75 yards, showing his uncanny ability to pluck the ball out of the air, but none of the yards-after-catch magic that separates him from the pack.
The bye week allowed Nicks to take stock. He knows he needs to start turning short and moderate receptions into bigger plays down the field.
“I feel like I need to start doing that some more,’’ Nicks said. “I think maybe early in the season it kind of hindered me a little bit because I couldn’t really catch and burst right away due to the knee and the foot, or just not trusting it to make a solid plant on it at full speed. I think this time off, and with the schedule we got I’m ready to get after it.’’
There is no time like the present, as Nicks gets to run patterns Sunday night against a team he always abuses. In three career games against the Packers, Nicks has 18 catches for 346 yards and five touchdowns.
He was magnificent in last year’s 37-20 playoff victory, tearing up the Lambeau Field grass for seven receptions, 165 yards and two touchdowns. Most memorably, he went up and somehow came down with Eli Manning’s Hail Mary floater at the buzzer, a 37-yard scoring miracle, that sent the Giants floating into halftime leading 20-10. They would win 37-20.
“You could feel the air be sucked out of the stadium right after he made that catch,’’ Victor Cruz recalled.
It was the sort of take-your-breath-away moment the Giants anticipate Nicks providing on a weekly basis. His difficulties aren’t the only reason the entire passing operation has sagged — no touchdown passes in three straight games — but they are the main reason why Manning lately is at the helm of a pop-gun attack.
Are the stars aligned for a Nicks eruption? Manning said, based on what he has seen this week, Nicks is “looking good and playing well … that’s good news for us.’’
The Packers will go without two injured starters in their secondary — Charles Woodson and Sam Shields — and will start a rookie cornerback (Casey Hayward). They already have allowed 38 pass plays of 20 or more yards, the sixth-highest total in the NFL. Plus, their most lethal pass-rusher, linebacker Clay Matthews (nine sacks), has a strained hamstring and isn’t expected to play.
The Giants are waiting for the real Hakeem Nicks to show up.
“I know he’s had good games against them,’’ Justin Tuck said. “You get accustomed to seeing him play that well, it’s not like watching a blue moon. When that guy brings his lunch pail he makes big plays. You almost kind of shrug it off like he’s supposed to do that.’’
paul.schwartz@nypost.com