INDIANAPOLIS — They know how to win a Super Bowl.
The Giants champions who prevailed over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII told The Post yesterday the mindset they will take into Super Bowl XLVI Sunday to beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and the Patriots once again.
“It’s crazy. You have to have a real [feeling] like … you’re ready to die,” defensive end Osi Umenyiora said. “There’s no bigger game. The team you’re playing against is one of the best teams in football, so you’re not just going to go out there and walk all over them. You’re going to have to fight with what you have. So knowing that, and knowing that if you lose this game, you might as well have not even made the playoffs if you lose this game.”
COMPLETE GIANTS SUPER BOWL COVERAGE
Tight ends coach Mike Pope has three rings.
“The mindset is: Do not turn the ball over,” Pope told The Post. “Play as hard as you can as long as you can. Give a little extra effort. When you think you’ve blocked ’em long enough, block ’em another couple of counts, those kind of things.
“Because this is going to be a war. This is going to be a war.”
Much more so than Super Bowl XLII.
“I think it’s the matchups and the strength of the players that are going against each other,” Pope said. “When that ball snaps, there’s going to be some collisions that the average citizen wouldn’t walk away from.”
Do or die, one last time.
“Just be prepared for anything,” defensive end Justin Tuck said. “You have no reason to hold anything back because you get about four months of pure rest after this. Don’t leave anything on the football field. You don’t want to have any regrets leaving this game because you never know when you’re going to get an opportunity to be back here.
“And even though I haven’t felt it and don’t plan on feeling it, I’ve talked to a lot of guys that lost this game, and the sickness that they describe is something I definitely don’t want to feel.”
Running back Brandon Jacobs: “You have to play every play like something’s on the line, which something is on the line. If you don’t play much, the time that you’re out there and you go out there and deliver your statement to the opponent. You do the best you can do whenever you get a chance to do it.”
Tom Coughlin knows what to expect from his Giants on Super Sunday.
“Toughness,” the coach said. “Resiliency, certainly, great focus, a great team concept in terms of all three supporting one another. Showing the kind of resolve, if you will, that has been demonstrated down through Green Bay and certainly San Francisco.”
Players counseled to be ready for the speed of this game.
“You have preseason speed, regular-season speed, playoff speed and then Super Bowl speed,” linebacker Chase Blackburn said. “Every one of them is a notch up. Just be prepared for it.”
Left tackle David Diehl: “Everything happens faster. Everybody’s playing harder, everybody’s selling out. Blitzes and stunts happen faster. There’s a playoff speed, but there’s a Super Bowl speed, and there’s nothing like it.”
The intensity is intense.
“Because it’s the Super Bowl and because it comes one step further after the championship games, yeah, it’s going to be more intense,” Coughlin said.
Kicker Lawrence Tynes: “I don’t even remember the first one to be honest with you. Everything’s almost like slow motion, if that makes sense. Every play has its own story.”
At any moment, there can be a David Tyree moment.
“The mindset you should have is that every play is going to affect this game — every single play, every single snap, every single route,” Tynes said.
Focus on top of focus will be required.
“As Coach refers to: ‘steely-eyed focus,’ ” right guard Chris Snee said. “We are dead-set on that ultimate prize, and that is to come home with the Lombardi Trophy.”
Special-teamer Zak DeOssie: “You have to be 100 percent focused. You can’t go into the game enamored by all this glitz and glamour, you have to be focused and grounded and know that you’re there to play in a football game, not to appear in the Super Bowl.”
“No toughness, no championship!” means mental toughness, too.
“You just have to be persevering,” defensive end Dave Tollefson said. “Things aren’t always going to go how you want ’em to go. There’s going to be some ups and downs, but one thing has to be constant — and that’s your effort and your faith in that it’s going to go right.”
Don’t let the surreal nature of the event overwhelm you.
“It seemed like a fantasy,” right tackle Kareem McKenzie said. “You have to be a sense of being able to control the chaos around you.”
Embrace the stage.
“The great players are going to try to be great, the good ones have to be great,” cornerback Corey Webster said.
Despite the hype, remember it’s still a game.
“Just keep everything in perspective,” cornerback Aaron Ross said. “Don’t build the game up bigger than what it is.”
Quarterback Eli Manning, MVP of Super Bowl XLII, summed it all up.
“Everybody knows when that ball is kicked off that you’re about to play in the biggest game you’ve ever played in,” he said. “ ‘Hey, this is something I’ve been doing my whole life, playing football games.’ Not to get nervous, not to make it bigger than what it is. That’s hard to do.
“ ‘Hey, I got my job, I know my assignments, I have to run and catch and tackle and do all the basics well.’ And if you can do that, if you can kind of simplify this game as much as you can, then I think you’re at a real advantage.”
How to win a Super Bowl, by the New York Football Giants.
steve.serby@nypost.com