Favre's increasingly erratic play after halftime, culminating in two big interceptions, the latter setting up the Giants' winning score in overtime, was caused by the Giants pass rush. It was the same story with Tony Romo a week before in Dallas. The Giants also took away Green Bay's running game. A week ago Ryan Grant ran wild for 201 yards on 27 carries, a 7.4-yard average. The Giants held him to 29 yards on 13 carries, 2.2 per try. And nobody else even tried.
The Giants sacked Favre exactly zero times, but their pressure up the middle never let him get into a rhythm, and it also disrupted the run. The Giants can take encouragement from the Chargers pass rush, which did a similar job on Tom Brady.
The Patriots quarterback was very nearly perfect in New England's first playoff win, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he looked downright human against San Diego, taking two sacks and throwing three picks, though one of those was another ball that bounced off a receiver, something that happened twice in the Jags game.
It may have just been one of those days for Brady. Hey, we all have days when we're only good, not superb. But the Chargers brought heat up the middle and forced Brady to move side to side to get free. His strength, and I'd go so far as to call it a genius, is staying in the pocket, gliding a step here and there, staying tantalizingly out of the grasp of pass rushers. If the Giants can get some pressure on Brady up the middle on Feb. 3, that might change things.
They might be 10-point underdogs.
That's the problem. The Chargers made life miserable for Brady, and the Patriots still won by two scores. Bringing pressure up the middle sounds nice, but the Patriots offensive line is about as good as it gets. And if Brady can get a pass away, his receivers are better than Favre's.
Take away Randy Moss, as the Chargers did, and Brady will throw it to Wes Welker and Donte' Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney and, as he did for eight completions Sunday, Kevin Faulk. And don't forget he can also hand off to Laurence Maroney, who rumbled for 122 yards on 25 carries against San Diego.
The Giants are playing terrific football right now. They've just won three straight road playoff games, and they haven't lost away from home since Week 1, when they lost in Dallas. Eli Manning is playing like a No. 1 draft choice, taking advantage of having the huge Plaxico Burress -- 11 catches Sunday -- on his side and not making the kinds of mistakes that had been threatening to become a hallmark. The defensive front is playing well enough that the banged-up and secondary hasn't been exposed.
And the Patriots, who of course are playing the way nobody's ever played before, to the tune of 18-0, one win better than the winningest winners ever, seem to be scraping by lately. The team that was abusing opponents earlier in the season hasn't played a dominant game since the Dec. 9 win over Pittsburgh. They followed that with two nonrouts at home over the Jets and Miami Dolphins, terrible teams, then squeaked past the Giants on the road before winning their two tough playoff games.
Those twin trend lines, plus the fact that three of the last four NFL games played have resulted in upsets, are what we're all going to be thinking about over the next 12 days as we try to convince ourselves that the Giants don't just have a chance, they have a good chance.
They don't. But they do have a chance.
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About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
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