You cannot hold back the surging tide and you cannot hold back the living, breathing force that is the Giants when Eli Manning is passing with precision and especially when their defense reaches back to the halcyon days and treats an opponent with dominating disdain.
Don’t even try to hold back the Giants when they finally get their dormant running game in gear, when they shrug off a slow offensive start with a fast finish, when they treat their towel-waving fans to a near-perfect 60 minutes of pressure-filled defensive excellence.
No sense going anywhere but with the flow of momentum that carried the Giants to a resounding 24-2 annihilation of the over-matched Falcons at roaring MetLife Stadium, a flow that carries the Giants out of the Wild Card playoff round and into an NFC Divisional game Sunday in Green Bay, where the Super Bowl champion and 15-1 Packers will be waiting.
“We’re going to win,’’ said Jason Pierre-Paul, the second-year defensive end/man-child who had another one of his punishing performances. “One hundred percent we’re going to win … because we’re the best.’’
Of course, the Packers until proven otherwise are the best, but the Giants are certainly peaking at the right time and have that interesting and last-second 38-35 loss to the Packers back on Dec. 4 still rattling around their brains.
“They’re a good team. I think we have a very capable defense. It’s gonna be a very, very good game,’’ Osi Umenyiora said. “We’re not going to go down there and lay down, we’re going to go down there and fight.’’
Packers receiver Greg Jennings, not long after the Giants put the finishing touches on their masterful effort, tweeted “The team that kept us from our potential Super Bowl in ’08 is back on OUR turf now. Trust me, we haven’t forgotten.’’
The Falcons are not the Packers, not by a long shot, but they do possess weapons and the Giants trashed every one of them, wore down Atlanta’s fast but smallish defense and turned a 7-2 halftime lead into a rout. And Manning threw three touchdown passes — two to Hakeem Nicks — and the defense was lathered up into a relentless fury.
“If we can continue to play defense like that, we can make ourselves heard in this tournament,’’ said Tom Coughlin, who gained his first home playoff victory in his third try.
“We’ll take the wins any way we can get ’em. It’s not a template how you win games, but this is Giants football,’’ added general manager Jerry Reese. “This is how we like to win games, we like to run the ball and play-action pass and play good defense.’’
It wasn’t that long ago when the Giants defense was a complete mess, the unquestioned Achilles heel threatening to compromise all the exploits Manning was achieving. That time is gone. This was a complete shutout, with the only Falcons points coming on a second-quarter safety when Manning was called for intentionally grounding in the end zone. That put the Falcons up 2-0.
“Our defense was tremendous. … We should feel bad for giving them those two points,’’ guard Chris Snee said.
They’ll all get over it. The first order of business was containing running back Michael Turner and it was accomplished with stunning force; Turner was limited to 41 rushing yards on 15 carries. Matt Ryan was sacked twice and harassed far more often, never comfortable looking downfield as Julio Jones, Roddy White and tight end Tony Gonzalez made short-gain catches with little impact.
The Falcons managed a meager 247 total yards. Twice they tried Ryan on quarterback sneaks on fourth-and-1 and twice, as Osi Umenyiora said, the Giants “mushed him back.’’
It was defense all day for the Giants, holding down the fort until Manning and the offense shook off the cobwebs of a rough first half to take total command in the second. The Falcons made sure not to allow Victor Cruz to beat them and so Nicks did, getting the first Giants touchdown on a reach-back 4-yard scoring catch and electrifying the crowd and his team with a 72-yard catch and run to make it 17-2 late in the third quarter. Mario Manningham, held without a catch last week, arose from his slumber with a 27-yard touchdown reception with 9:55 remaining to finish off the Falcons.
Manning actually had a 14-yard scramble to help set up the first touchdown and could at times lean on a rushing attack that came up with 172 yards — a full 50 yards higher than their best output in any game this season. The Giants had two runs all season of 30 or more yards and Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw each had one at least that long.
“We feel as tough as any NFL team in the league,’’ Bradshaw said.
That toughness will surely be challenged this weekend. The early forecast in Green Bay for Sunday is 21 degrees and a possibility of snow.
“That’s tropical’’ said Justin Tuck, thinking back on the frigid minus-23 degrees the Giants overcame in the 2007 NFC title game.
“I don’t think they think ‘The Giants are coming to kill us’ or anything like that,’’ Umenyiora said. “They’re probably thinking they’re going to win again and if I was them I’d be thinking the same thing. Hopefully we go out there and have a chance to shock the world.’’