Giants Confident, Focused and Hungry as They Prep for Pats

Just when New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was doing a great job of keeping his team from inciting their Super Bowl XLVI opponents with locker room bulletin board material, defensive tackle Chris Canty was perhaps a little too forthright on Wednesday while advising Giants fans to "get ready for a parade on Tuesday."

Canty (as in, can't he keep his mouth shut?) then recanted somewhat, saying "I'm not trying to inflame anybody or anything like that. I want our fans to be excited about the game that's coming up on Sunday."

Although telling Giants fans to clear their calendars for a celebration next week certainly sounded like a guarantee, Canty insisted that he was only candidly capturing the prevailing feeling throughout the Giants organization -- that although New York nearly missed the postseason this year, it fully expects to walk away with the Super Bowl XLVI trophy in its possession on Sunday night.

"This team is very confident, with good reason, because of the road that we've gone down, the road we've traveled," Canty said of the Giants.

That road was a winding and twisting one that eventually found its way to Indianapolis, where the New England Patriots will be the final tough roadblock for New York to overcome this season.

It was a smooth ride during the first half of the trip, when the Giants started 6-2 to grab a two-game division lead. But, a major pothole of a four-game losing streak, leading to a fifth loss in six games, slowed them down so much, that they very nearly ran out of gas before reaching the playoffs, and eventually, Super Bowl XLVI on a season-high five-game winning streak.

Giants' running back Brandon Jacobs said at Super Bowl Media Day on Tuesday that his team was supremely resilient while recognizing that it was still fortunate enough to save its season and accomplish something great.

"Even after that, we got it together," Jacobs said. "There are not many teams that have a chance to do something special after going through such turmoil like we went through."

In sharp contrast, the Patriots easily sailed through their regular season after a 5-3 start that concluded with a two-game losing streak, including their last defeat -- a 24-20 Week 9 loss to the Giants, New England's first loss in 21 regular season home games.

While the Giants weathered the NFL's toughest second-half schedule, the Patriots took advantage of playing the league's easiest slate during the second half, to win ten straight games en route to securing their fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 seasons.

One of those Super Bowl trips was the last time that either New York or New England played in the sport's biggest game, when the Giants as heavy underdogs, spoiled the Patriots' attempt at being the NFL's first team to finish a perfect 19-0 in Super Bowl XLII.

With just seven Patriots and 15 Giants on the teams' respective rosters four years later, Jacobs doesn't believe that revenge will be an overriding factor in Sunday's game for New England.

"No, I [don't] buy that," Jacobs said. "That was 2007… that's gone. This is a new year."

If the Giants knew they could upset the Patriots then, they believe it even more now.

Jacobs' backfield mate, running back Ahmad Bradshaw was only a rookie for the first Giants-Patriots Super Bowl.

Comparing that Giants team with today's, Bradshaw said at Media Day, "We are a whole different team [now]. [In 2007], we just had a lot of athletes that just went out and played football. Now, we are a lot more confident and we know we can win."

Much of that belief comes from head coach Tom Coughlin's direction. Bradshaw said of his coach, "He's still tough. He wants to win as much as we want to… he prepares us for every game and he stays on us to stay focused."

Four years ago, other veterans were guiding Bradshaw and other young players on the team. Today, Bradshaw is returning the favor, acting as an extension of Coughlin, to help today's younger Giants.

"[I'm] just more experienced," he said. "I have been [to the Super Bowl before now], [other] guys [on our team] have. We are just trying to keep the younger guys focused and ready to play."

Bradshaw also mentioned some more personal reasons that motivate him.

"I'm blessed. Coming from a small town (Bluefield, Va.), to go through [a small program like] Marshall, and getting picked up by the Giants, [in the] seventh round… to get [the] opportunity [of playing in the Super Bowl] my first league in the year, and [again] now, it is unheard of."

New York's leading rusher added that he is also playing for his late high school coach. "He passed the year after I left," Bradshaw said. "Glenn Carlock, he instilled the heart in the game for me. My hat goes off to him. He is a big part of my life in football."

Meanwhile, Jacobs has his own driving forces, one of which is whether Sunday's Super Bowl might be his last in a Giant uniform.

"You have to let [that] take care of itself," Jacobs said. "[Right now], I am trying to do as best I can to help this team win."

Knowing that he might have only one more game left with the franchise that drafted him in 2005, Jacobs is determined to write a good ending to his Giants story, just in case. "It definitely motivates me to go out with a bang. If it is [my last game with New York], I'll leave with a Super Bowl ring."

Other sources of inspiration come from the confidence the Giants gained from their regular season victory at New England, and from the unwavering faith that Bradshaw and Jacobs each have in their quarterback, Eli Manning, who passed for a franchise record 4,933 yards during the regular season, and who in three postseason games, has averaged 307.7 passing yards per game, while throwing for eight touchdowns and just one interception.

Top receiver Hakeem Nicks and Bradshaw each missed the Giants' regular season win in New England, and now, both are healthy, which Bradshaw said, "Gives us a lot of confidence, and we have weapons back who can help."

On Manning, who set an NFL-record with 15 fourth-quarter touchdown passes during the regular season, Bradshaw added, "I respect his game. He is one of the smartest quarterbacks I've ever seen, just his niche for the game."

Echoing those glowing words for the Giants' captain, was Jacobs, who said, "Eli has been tremendous for us. He has had a ferocious-like, assassin-like mentality… there is a lot of confidence in Eli, we definitely believe in Eli… to watch him grow [from earlier struggles] was something special. The man is doing some great things that not a lot of people have done… he doesn't put the ball in harm's way and we play as hard as we can for him… I'm honored to have him as my quarterback and [I'm] ready to go to war with him any day."

Which is exactly how Jacobs felt when emotions hit him as the Giants saw Lucas Oil Stadium as they arrived in Indianapolis.

"You come in and see the outline of the building and how they dress it up [for the Super Bowl]. We know that is where we are going to be going to war."

As opposed to the verbal fight that Jacobs brought to the fans earlier this season, when he complained of Giants fans booing at home games that New York shouldn't have been losing to inferior teams.

Since then, winning has mellowed Jacobs' attitude in that regard. "Our fans have been great for us the last two months," he said. "Even with the last couple games of our losing streak, they've been with us and supported us… we had a lot of people out in San Francisco [for the Giants' NFC title game], a lot of people came out to cold Green Bay [in a divisional playoff game the week before]. They have just as much a part of this as us, as players."

That's what winning will do.

A couple of years ago, it was Jacobs who got into it with opposing fans, when ironically during a blowout loss on the same field on which he'll soon compete for football's biggest prize, Jacobs chucked his helmet several rows into the stands behind the Giants' bench.

Even though the few Patriots who are left from Super Bowl XLII, along with head coach Bill Bellichick, might be seeking revenge for the loss in that game, it's the Giants who might surprisingly be the team that's more desperate for a victory.

They are as Bradshaw said, "Very hungry. We want this more than anything. We have a lot of guys who haven't been here, who have played a long time. We [also] have a lot of guys that have been here and just want that second ring."

Reflecting on a bigger picture, a grateful Jacobs said, "There are 32 football teams with a whole hell of a lot of talent on all of those teams. Every team, every guy is getting paid an astronomical amount of dollars."

In the offseason, Jacobs actually agreed to less money to make a backfield tandem of he and Bradshaw work under the Giants' salary cap.

"At the end of the year, there are only two teams that stand tall," Jacobs continued. "To be among those two teams is a great feeling."

That doesn't mean of course, that Jacobs and the Giants are happy just to be at the Super Bowl, while trying to make history as the first Super Bowl winner after having a 9-7 regular season record.

"My other hand is jealous," Bradshaw said of trying to earn his second Super Bowl ring.

"It would be the best thing in the world [to win on Sunday] for me and a lot of guys on the team."