The Giants heard Rex Ryan’s summertime call for the rest of the league to beat the Patriots, and they are ready to do their part, no matter what the oddsmakers think of them.
“If we win this — and I feel we will — the outside world will say the Giants are now a great team,” safety Kenny Phillips said.
And no longer say: Big Who?
In truth, the Giants couldn’t care less what Ryan says or thinks. They burn to upset the Patriots on Sunday to stay two games up in the NFC East. If beating the Patriots happens to help the Jets, so be it.
“I think he’d be pulling for us, obviously just like when the Jets play the NFC opponents, we’ll be rooting for them,” Eli Manning said. “I don’t think he’ll be wearing a Giants hat and jumping up and down, but he might be hoping for a certain outcome.”
Manning is playing at a Tom Brady level. The Giants have all their pass rushers lined up and eager to shake, rattle and roll Brady. The Patriots were exposed by the Steelers.
But the Giants are 8 1/2-point underdogs.
Because they barely squeezed by the Dolphins at home and lost to the Seahawks?
Because Hakeem Nicks (hamstring) is a major question mark?
Because Brady has won 31 straight regular-season games at home?
Because the Bill Belichick Patriots haven’t lost back-to-back games since 2009?
Probably all of the above.
“We play better when no one gives us any respect,” Justin Tuck said.
He paused and asked: “Weren’t we a big underdog in the Super Bowl?”
This just in: The Giants were 14-point underdogs to the perfect Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
“I don’t think that game’s really gonna have too much bearing on this one,” Belichick said.
Except that Belichick understands this much: If you can make Brady uncomfortable in the pocket, he isn’t the same quarterback. The Giants made him uncomfortable in the pocket in the Super Bowl, and they plan on making him uncomfortable in the pocket Sunday.
Can the Giants do to Brady now what they did to him then?
“We’ll find out on Sunday,” Tuck said.
Yes or no?
“Sure we can,” Tuck said.
Can Brady be rattled?
“Yeah,” Jason Pierre-Paul said, “all quarterbacks can be rattled.”
Phillips: “I think the key for us is gonna be just to be stop the run and try to make them one-dimensional so those guys up front can eat — they’re hungry.”
To Belichick, it’s Big Blue, not Big Who?
“Most times you play a team, and that team might have one player that’s the caliber of rusher that you really have to game-plan for, and really feel like that the guy can ruin a game — I mean, the Giants got about five of ’em. Perry [Fewell] does a good job with his scheme, he puts ’em in different positions. … You don’t know where Pierre-Paul’s gonna be, you don’t really know where Tuck’s gonna be, you don’t know where [Mathias] Kiwanuka’s gonna be. … It’s as good a group as I’ve seen in a long time.”
This just in: The Patriots own the worst pass defense in creation.
Manning would relish a shootout, even if Ramses Barden has to pick up the slack for Nicks.
“The two times we’ve played, we’ve kinda had one of each — we’ve had a high-scoring one and we’ve had a pretty low-scoring one,” Manning said. “You never know what type of game it might be. Obviously, shootouts can be fun ’cause offenses are moving the ball and scoring points, but obviously they’re talented and they have the ability to score, so whatever the circumstances of the game present, I think we’ll be ready for either one.”
This just in: Tom Coughlin isn’t here to kiss Belichick’s rings.
“We like being the underdogs,” former Jets punter Steve Weatherford said. “That’s the way Tom likes it. We’re happy with the point spread. That would [tick] Rex off. Rex would be like, ‘That’s disrespectful!’ Tom’s feeling is, ‘Good, that means they won’t expect us to punch them in the mouth because we’re going to.’ That’s just something I feel like he would say.”
Coughlin’s Giants have a history of folding in the second half of seasons. The 2011 Giants are obsessed with finishing.
“I like our team, I like the way that we prepare, I like our attitude and our confidence,” David Diehl said. “We need to play our best football to beat this team at New England, and we need to build off of that.”
For now, they are Big Who in Vegas.
“If they were to play on a neutral field,” Hilton Race and Sportsbook director Jay Kornegay said, “the Patriots would be 4 1/2-5 over them.”
Several other key Giants — Ahmad Bradshaw, David Baas, Osi Umenyiora — missed practice yesterday with assorted bumps and bruises. They’ll be playing Sunday.
“They’re not full-speed,” Kornegay said, “not to mention that the Patriots probably got a little [annoyed] after that beat down by the Steelers. A lot of people find it difficult to believe the Patriots could have two bad performances in a row.”
This just in: Chad Ochocinco has been a disappontment, and the Patriots are scrambling to get Taylor Price on the field to take some heat off Wes Welker.
“Whatever coverage we’re in, I think we match up well against them,” Phillips said.
The bettors, as of yesterday, were counting them out again.
“Even at that point spread,” Kornegay said, “we’re still probably gonna have to need the Giants.”
Ryan’s Jets need them, too. They will be meeting the Patriots a week from Sunday in a possible first-place showdown at MetLife Stadium.
Chris Snee was asked what he would want to say to Ryan, who considers the Giants little brothers to the Jets, this weekend.
“That this game,” Snee said, and smirked, “we’re not winning it for him. I promise, if we happen to pull this one out, no one in this locker room’s gonna think about Rex Ryan after the game. OK?”
And no one outside that locker room will be looking at them as Big Who?