newjerseynewsroom.com

BY SAM HITCHCOCK

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

People love to make comparisons and analogies. “This 2011 Giants team can be prolific because they have holdovers from the 2007 Super Bowl Giants team.” “These 2011 Giants resemble the 2010 Green Bay Packers because they eked into the playoffs and peaked at the right time!” “Will the Giants use their 2007 strategy to beat the Patriots in the 2011/12 Super Bowl?”

It seems everyone has the Super Bowl pegged as a rematch of the historic Super Bowl XLII, when the Giants pulled one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Despite playing their most meaningful playoff game in a decade at home, the 49ers have been told all week that it is essentially time for them to step aside for the Brady v. Manning rematch. Of course, we’re not there yet.

For some time, the Giants’ pass rush has been considered the best in the NFL when healthy, and to beat teams with high flying passing attacks, like Green Bay, they would slow the game down, run the football, and pressure the star quarterback. This accounts for their most notable wins in the past few years (also known as the Super Bowl XLII strategy).

The irony now is that the Giants’ offense and passing attack are as dangerous as any in the league. New York likely holds the best three-wide-receiver set in the game, and Manning this season has established himself as among the game’s elite quarterbacks. To extend this analogy further, if you were Jim Harbaugh and you were trying to stop an effective pass game, especially with your defense susceptible to the big play (among the worse in the NFL this season), having a smashmouth run-a-ton, turnover-fest would be exactly what you would want, would it not?

In fact, wouldn’t you attempt to use the same defense the Giants used in the 2007 Super Bowl, and hope that your fearsome pass rushers, Justin Smith and Aldon Smith, can pressure the quarterback enough to slow down their high-flying aerial attack? Furthermore, the 49ers only rushed the ball 19 times with Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter last week against the Saints. This will have to increase dramatically if the 49ers hope to stay with the Giants.

Gore is injured, but this is the NFC Championship and the biggest moment of his career, so someone (Harbaugh or team leader Patrick Willis) may want to give him an Antrel Rolle-esque pep talk to light a fire under him. Gore will need close to 25 carries for San Francisco to compete; and option two, Kendall Hunter, should optimally get near 10 carries.

Flashing forward in time to Sunday, it is projected to be bad weather. A wet, rainy day in San Francisco should play into the 49ers’ plan. The Giants will use their “big nickel” package of three safeties, and will rely on linebacker Michael Boley to cover Vernon Davis. But if the 49ers pound the football, it will allow Alex Smith to execute play action and roll outs, which he has learned to do effectively.

Everyone has read/heard how all the regular season statistics with the Giants should be thrown out, how they are not the same team they were in the regular season, especially when they lost to the 49ers in Week 10 (their defensive core getting healthy being the biggest reason).