Groundhog Day: Giants Play the Patriots Again in Superbowl, Both Much Different Teams

Today is Groundhog day, the most inane holiday of the year! Where I’m living we have not even had winter yet so it does not matter to me whether or not we have 6 more weeks of “winter” (thank you Global Warming). Much has been made this week about the Giants playing the New England Patriots again in the Superbowl. You’ve heard the story before. The Giants ended the Patriots run at an immortal season when they defeated the Patriots in 2008 (the Superbowl in the 2007 season). The talk has also been about how the Patriots and Giants play in pre-season a lot, and then again how the Giants beat the Patriots in New England earlier this year.

But the differences between those games are so drastic that you almost can not look at the past games to get a picture of how this game will shake out.

Here are some of the major differences in this Superbowl Contest from even when the Giants and Patriots played in week 9 (the last time the Patriots lost).

Giants Linebacker corps

One of the biggest, and completely overlooked reasons the Giants are playing better defense now than they did at the beginning of the season is because the linebacker corps. In week 9 the Giants linebacker corps was largely a group of rookies rotating in and out with the starter being Greg Jones in the middle and Kiwianuka and Michael Boley receiving much of the action.

Jones would soon be replaced by Mark Herzlich, but then Herzlich got injured and was replaced by Chase Blackburn who has stabilized the MLB position and has played with smarts and instincts avoiding big mistakes while keeping the defense in check .

Jacquian Williams was utterly lost in the first half of the season and is now a much different player than he was at that point in time. He is in the right spots when he is suppose to be and has made a lot of big plays on third down.

Giants Secondary:

The Giants secondary has changed a lot since that game as well. In the first meeting the Giants relied on DBs like Michael Coe, in this game they will use a lot more Deon Grant and Prince Amukamara who was injured for that game.

Giants Injuries on offense

In week 9 the New York Giants were without three of their offensive starters. The Giants did not have WR Hakeem Nicks, perhaps their best offensive player outside of Quarterback Eli manning. The Giants were also without RB Ahmad Bradshaw which forced Jacobs to get 18 carries, the most this season by a long shot. They were also missing David Baas who was replaced by Kevin Boothe who was just coming off the Physically unable to perform list in that game and was very rusty. He also had a myriad of bad snaps in that game.

The addition of Nicks and Bradshaw could give the Patriots some head-aches on defense.

The Patriots too have changed, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

In that game the Patriots still add their best front seven player Andre Carter which is a big loss, I think.

But more importantly since that game the Patriots have seen to do a much better job up front mixing in 43 and 34 looks sometimes even on the same play (Eric Mangini has broken this down a few times if you watch ESPN). This has really improved their run defense.

Vince Wilfork

Vince Wilfork has been playing so much better since that game it’s silly. Wilfork is a major problem for the New York Giants.

To the 2007 to the 2011 seasons the teams are completely different.

In 2007 the Giants were a ball control offense that had a terrific offensive line and running game. They had slower wide receivers who didn’t create yardafter after the catch. In the 2011 season, the Giants cannot run the football and rely on much more athletic wide receivers who create a ton of yardage after the catch. The play difference between Eli Manning of 2007 and Eli Manning of 2011 cannot be understated. The Giants create a ton of yardager after the catch now.

In 2007 the New England Patriots were a really big play offense who took a lot of shots down the football field, now the team relies on good Tight End play and throwing a lot of passes underneath. The Patriots were also a much better defense in 2007.

The point is: the storylines this week are being overplayed these teams are two entirely different teams from 2007 and 2011, but not only that they look dramatically different from week 9 to right now.

Thoughts?

What are your predictions?

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