Once again the Giants have played themselves into a corner, needing wins down the stretch to even reach the postseason. And Osi Umenyiora — who could be playing his last games with the team — said past success with their backs against the wall may have lulled the Giants into a false sense of security they can ill afford Sunday in Baltimore.
“No doubt about that part, and that might be a problem, because we all feel like ‘Ok, we’ve done this before, and we can do this again … we have the ability to challenge and we can always rise up.’ And then we put ourselves in this corner. Now we have to fight our way out of it,’’ said Umenyiora, who acknowledged the Giants’ late-season history may have left them spoiled.
“It might. But it also gives us the knowledge we have experience in doing that. If anything, you don’t want to put yourselves in that situation. But we did again, and hopefully we’ll be able fight our way out of it again. … We’ve been here entirely too many times, but that’s the way things have played out for us.’’
Umenyiora had 11 1/2 sacks in 2010, and nine in just nine games during last year’s injury-shortened Super Bowl-winning campaign. But after inking a one-year, $6 million deal in June, he has just six sacks this season. Knowing these could be his final two games with the Giants, he could have one last Super Bowl run on his mind.
“I hope it’s on all of our minds,” defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. “We want to win another Super Bowl this year. I think every guy on our team believes we can do that. So I’m not speaking for just him — every guy on our team believes we can go and win. But we need to take care of business on Sunday.’’
And that may hinge on Umenyiora and the rest of the pass-rushers snapping out of their malaise. Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh said he didn’t fear Big Blue’s once-vaunted pass rush, and Umenyiora understands why.
“Even if he was scared, he’s not going to be like ‘Yes, we’re scared’ because he has to put confidence in his team,” Umenyiora said. “We just have to go out there and try to put fear in whoever we play next.”
For the Giants to do that, for them to get to quarterback Joe Flacco, Umenyiora knows they must first stop running back Ray Rice.
“It shouldn’t be second-and-3, it should be second-and-8. It shouldn’t be third-and-1, it should be third-and-10, so we can pin our ears back and rush. We haven’t done a good job of that, and that’s what our real shortcoming is,’’ Umenyiora said.
“I expect us to come out and play a lot better than we did last week. Everybody knows what’s at stake. We just have to perform like it.’’