For being the superbowl champs...

[VCDefectors]

...the Giants sure do seem to be flying under the radar this offseason. Personally, I don't get it. Their playoff run last season was one the most incredible team performances I have ever seen.

Are they not considered to be superbowl favorites? In my book, they are. I'm rather perplexed as to why the media still refers to their wins over the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots as upsets. How is that possible?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. I'd be the first to admit that I don't read up a lot on the Giants. I rarely see anything posted about them. Usually, the defending world champions are the offseason media darlings.

As a Cowboys fan, I envy the fact that they were the best team last year, get the gold, and have managed to escape the limelight that often goes with such accomplishments.

[Gold21]

Because they were upsets, 9 times out of 10 the Giants would have ended up on the losing end of that Super Bowl.

Asante Sammual drops a pick that would seal the game.

Tyree makes an insane catch that any other time would have found its way to the ground.

The Super Bowl win will forever be considered a huge upset, as far as beating the Cowboys, meh its within the division, there is no such thing as an upset within a division in my eyes, teams and players alike always put forth more within their division. It's just how things go.

I for one do not see the Giants repeating, everything just seemed to fall right for them in that final run. If the Giants repeat, that would be a HUUUUUGE shock.

Eli I think just had one of those really nice runs, I have hated Eli since the day he was drafted, theres something about bitching where your going to play as the #1 draft choice. Millions of people would give a limb to have been in his shoes, and to ***** and whine like that..just doesn't set right with me.

Giants repeat...no way.

The East is the strongest division in football hands down. I mean hell we had three teams in the playoffs last year. And the Eagles are on the rebound...What other division can come close to that?

I was shocked they pulled it off because we beat each other up year in and year out down the stretch, with the three teams in contention and the Skins needing to finish strong like they did. I will admit the deck was stacked based off that alone.

Why couldn't we be in the West or something..haha. All seriousness, I love the East, I love the history, I love the competition. I do however hate the Cowboys, Giants and Eagles alike. But that comes with the territory.

They are going under the radar, because it just won't happen again. No matter how bad they want it to.

[jrockster21]

Are they not considered to be superbowl favorites? In my book, they are.

Nope. Right now the superbowl favorite is the Raiders. Off-season champs, baby!

I'm rather perplexed as to why the media still refers to their wins over the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots as upsets. How is that possible?

Umm...because they were a lower-seed than all those teams? Because they were a wild card? Because the Patriots were undefeated? They don't go back after the fact and re-seed the tournament based on how it SHOULD have gone. By definition, they were all upsets.

[VCDefectors]

Umm...because they were a lower-seed than all those teams? Because they were a wild card? Because the Patriots were undefeated? They don't go back after the fact and re-seed the tournament based on how it SHOULD have gone. By definition, they were all upsets.

Come on, do you really believe that? The Giants proved they were the best team and have the gold to prove it. There's no way that those games were upsets.

[33]

The only difference between them and us is they had a few starters as FA's that have left for other locales. But no one that's a irreplaceable. Which happens to almost every SB winning team.

I would not say they're the favorites to win it next year. For starters, there is a lot of offseason left.

[DWinzit]

The Giants were the surprising perfect storm last season.

The Giants had lots of luck on their side allowing them to become SB Champs. Their GM chose to stick with a coach living on his 9th life, an OC who some question how he still had a job in the NFL, was able to dodge the injury bug, were able to pick up a couple productive players cheap late in FA and most importantly had consistency from Eli for the first time in his career.

As for repeating, are you freaking kidding me?!

[HapHaszard]

Its still very early in the off season, no one on this board projected the Giants to be anything other than last in the NFCE last offseason. I bet if you asked Tom he didn't think in his wildest dreams they would go either. As for the Super bowl, the Giants had a gameplan that worked, it wasn't luck, they rattled the Patriots offense all game long.

When you shake a teams confidence the way the Giants did to the Patriots, lucky things happen. That little feeling of doubt has a way of changing the way a game will unfold. You get their defense thinking about things instead of reacting. You get their offense and QB worried about a blitz and the ball comes out too soon, and you get an incompletion. The Giants played the game the way they had to play to win and they did. I don't think it was luck they won, but a superior gameplan.

[kvarlo12000]

They gt pressure on the QB and that is why they won the SB.

[Fieldy]

They did have a superior gameplan for the superbowl. But, they also had a lot of pieces falling their way at just the right times. If Favre doesn't throw that interception in the NFC championship game, who's to say the Packers aren't in the SB and the pats run all over them. If the Giants hadn't given up those last points in the reg season finale against the Patriots and the Pats finish 15-1 instead of 16-0 does it light a fire under their *** and they roll over every one in the playoffs, or do the Pats lose confidence and lose their 1st game to Jacksonville?

Everybody has cards fall into place at the right time, but NY had A LOT of them falling all over the place. IMO, there's no way they do it again next year.


And a lower seed beating a higher seed is an upset, so the #5 winning the SB is upsets all the way. Hindsight is 20-20 but you can't change what at the time was an upset.

[Koolblue13]

For a team that's been to the SB twice in 7 years, they really get zero respect. Especially considering they're coming out of the division that has put a team in the Championship game for most of the decade.

[Inquisitor]

I honestly like it better this way, I think this team reacts better when the media glare isn't centered on them. The most important thing however is the fact that this Giants team has forever etched a place in NFL history, 30 years from now they'll still be talking about this Super Bowl. Nobody can ever take that away.

As for repeating, we're one of the youngest teams in the league, we have players that haven't even scratched the surface of their potential. We may very well have won the Super Bowl a year early, this team still has a lot of good runs left in it. We have as good a chance as any team in the NFC to get back to the Super Bowl, Eli has finally emerged as the big game QB he always showed glimpses he would develop into.

[VCDefectors]

I honestly like it better this way, I think this team reacts better when the media glare isn't centered on them. The most important thing however is the fact that this Giants team has forever etched a place in NFL history, 30 years from now they'll still be talking about this Super Bowl. Nobody can ever take that away.

As for repeating, we're one of the youngest teams in the league, we have players that haven't even scratched the surface of their potential. We may very well have won the Super Bowl a year early, this team still has a lot of good runs left in it. We have as good a chance as any team in the NFC to get back to the Super Bowl, Eli has finally emerged as the big game QB he always showed glimpses he would develop into.

I have to agree with this, as much as this pains me. Good post, Inquisitor. It just blows my mind the way some of the ATNers are writing off the Giants playoff run as a run of luck or whatever. I could see one or two games, but three road playoff games and a superbowl against an undefeated team? A team has to have a bit more than luck to pull off that accomplishment.

[jrockster21]

Come on, do you really believe that? The Giants proved they were the best team and have the gold to prove it. There's no way that those games were upsets.

What are you talking about - of course they were upsets. By the very definition of the word upset, they were upsets. A lower seed beating a higher seed is an upset. Period. End of story.

[VCDefectors]

What are you talking about - of course they were upsets. By the very definition of the word upset, they were upsets. A lower seed beating a higher seed is an upset. Period. End of story.

Hmm, well I have never looked at it that way, to be honest. I have always considered an upset to be when an inferior team beats a superior team. Those can be two different things.

[[[ghost]]]

Come on, do you really believe that? The Giants proved they were the best team and have the gold to prove it. There's no way that those games were upsets.

They were the best team, but those games were still upsets. They weren't supposed to win those games, but being the best team that they are, they found a way to win.