Week 17 good or bad?

[PatsFaninAZ]

I think this year is tending to remove doubt that you play to win right up to the end no matter what.

That said, would the Giants be in better or worse shape if they had rested starters and played plain vanilla. I don't mean in terms of psychologically and how it enabled them to make it to the super bowl -- I mean in terms of allowing the Patriots to see their game plan.

I think the Giants having shown their game plan for trying to beat the Patriots gives our coaching staff a good advantage. It works both ways too, of course, but we were going to try to win that game no matter what. If the Giants had just gone plain vanilla, we'd have less to work with. Worked out ok, I think.

Same ref for this game, by the way, as in week 17.

 

[DefenseRules]

I think this year is tending to remove doubt that you play to win right up to the end no matter what.

That said, would the Giants be in better or worse shape if they had rested starters and played plain vanilla. I don't mean in terms of psychologically and how it enabled them to make it to the super bowl -- I mean in terms of allowing the Patriots to see their game plan.

I think the Giants having shown their game plan for trying to beat the Patriots gives our coaching staff a good advantage. It works both ways too, of course, but we were going to try to win that game no matter what. If the Giants had just gone plain vanilla, we'd have less to work with. Worked out ok, I think.

Same ref for this game, by the way, as in week 17.

Actually, I really don't think that we showed them much during that matchup. I've watched that game a few times and BB really didn't do anything exotic against them.
Also, keep a few things in mind. The entire right side of our Offensive line was out for that game. Neal and Kaczur are back. Kyle Brady didn't play either and two of our best special teams players were out also; Willie Andrews and Kyle Eckel did not play in that game. Believe it or not, Andrews and Eckel are two of our best coverage guys on special teams.
I think that the Pats will play this game differently the second time around. I'm not guaranteeing any victories. This is the Super Bowl, and the Giants are just as hungry for that Championship as we are. I just think that we had some key people missing in that game that could make a difference in this one. I am preparing myself for a hard hitting, grind it out type of game. I will be absolutely STUNNED if it's not.