Cowboys, Pats biggest challengers to Super repeat for Giants

[Gryphon]

Cowboys, Pats biggest challengers to Super repeat for Giants
The Super Bowl champion New york Giants are not in danger of being one-year wonders. They will instead be one-month wonders if they don't make the playoffs according to New York Daily News NFL columnist Gary Myers.

"I would say they are being overlooked as Super Bowl champions about as much as anybody I've ever seen," former Giants QB Phil Simms said. "I think they are a team that is on the upswing. In the next couple of years, if they put things together and things fall into place, they might be the No. 1 or No. 2 Super Bowl contender."

There are numerous obstacles for the Giants on the road to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. Don't forget they failed to make the playoffs in the seasons following their three previous Super Bowl appearances. Here are the top challengers to a Super Bowl repeat:

Dallas Cowboys: The 'Boys are loaded with talent, but it would be nice if Tony Romo, the celebrity quarterback, had more on his resume than being Jessica Simpson's boyfriend and inspiring a hilarious tear-filled defense by T.O. of Romo's mediocre playoff performance against the Giants. Romo needs to win his first playoff game — Dallas has not won a postseason game since 1996, the longest drought in its 48-year history. Romo is 0-2 in the playoffs with major mistakes late in each game: The bobbled field goal snap in Seattle and the end zone INT vs. the Giants. Adam Jones, the bad act formerly known as Pacman, had his suspension lifted for the preseason by Roger Goodell and will be allowed to play in the regular season as long as he stays out of trouble this summer. The 'Boys are training in Oxnard, Calif., less than two hours from the temptations of Los Angeles. Jerry Jones should call every strip club within a 100-mile radius and institute a no-Pacman rule.

New England Patriots: After going 18-0 and then not finishing the deal against the Giants, it could be a letdown year for them. But the AFC East is so weak, the Pats can win the division even if the Jets, Dolphins and Bills turn the cameras around and spy on Bill Belichick's defense. Sure, Asante Samuel to the Eagles is the big loss, but if he doesn't let Eli Manning's sideline throw sail through his hands on the last Super Bowl drive, then we're talking about the Patriots trying to repeat. Tom Brady threw for 50 TDs last season, 23 of them caught by Randy Moss, and the Pats scored 589 points - all NFL records. But the Patriots scored only 14 points against the Giants in the Super Bowl with New England's three Pro-Bowl offensive linemen helpless against the Giants' pass rush. Can teams go to school on what the Giants did? They need the pieces first. Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora are not available and Michael Strahan is retired and not about to pull a Brett Favre.

Source: New York Daily News

 

[big dog cowboy]

The biggest challenger to Super repeat for the Giants are the Giants themselves. You can't call winning the Super Bowl a fluke, but overcoming their long odds of getting there and winning it two years in a row is very very unlikely.

 

[Gryphon]

Super Bowl champion Giants keep big chip on shoulder for 2008
By RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Saturday, July 19th 2008, 9:12 PM

Antonelli/News
Brandon Jacobs and Giants may have Super Bowl champs on their resumes, but going into 2008 training camp, many players say they still feel they're not getting respect they deserve.

The hangovers from the Giants' Super Bowl victory party were still fresh when the newly crowned champs sounded the first alarms for 2008. Somehow, just hours after their incredible, improbable win in Super Bowl XLII they had convinced themselves that the world had already dismissed them as a fluke.

"We still feel a little bit of a sense of people saying that the Patriots lost," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said in the team hotel the morning after the miracle. "We still feel like a poor man's champ."

Nearly six months later, the Giants don't seem to feel any richer, and they've yet to discover a wealth of national respect. They've already heard predictions that they won't even win their division this season, and they've seen the power rankings that have them somewhere below the upper echelon of the league.

"I'm not surprised," said running back Brandon Jacobs. "But if we haven't shut up a lot of doubters yet, we can still shut them up next year."

It's with that enormous chip still squarely on their shoulders that the Giants finally begin "next year" as they get back to work full-time this week at training camp at the University at Albany. And shortly after they arrive on campus Thursday morning they can expect to receive this message from Tom Coughlin when they gather as a team:

Last year was fun. But it's over now.

"I think it'll definitely be addressed when we get into training camp and get everybody together," said GM Jerry Reese.

"Last year is last year. That's not going to help us win any games this year. We can't talk about it. You've got to get out there and do it. That was our mantra last year: Talk is cheap, play the game. I think that carries over into next year as well. You can't talk about it, you've got to be about it."

Of course, it'll take a lot more than talk for the Giants to have a successful follow-up to their Super Bowl season - something they failed to do in 1987, 1991 and 2001 when they followed up a Super Bowl appearance by missing the playoffs. In fact, 12 of the first 41 Super Bowl champions missed the playoffs the year after their championship. Only 10 champs returned to the Super Bowl, with eight winning back-to-back titles.

There have only been four repeat Super Bowl champions in the last 28 years.

"Yeah, we've looked into that a little bit," Reese said. "Why can't teams play well after they've won a championship? I think a lot of things can be attributed to that in a lot of different ways, but the No. 1 thing is that you just have to focus and not be psyched out before the season starts. You can psych yourself out with that, saying, 'People are not expecting us to do much. We won a championship.' And it's human nature, too, that when you're on top that maybe you get a little bit complacent."

And, as the Giants found out during this offseason, a championship can bring all sorts of distractions with it, most notably a long line of players looking for more money. Since the Super Bowl, the Giants have shelled out millions in contracts to Coughlin, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, offensive linemen David Diehl, Rich Seubert and Chris Snee, kicker Lawrence Tynes and punter Jeff Feagles. But what all that spending also bought them was an unhappy Plaxico Burress, who refused to participate in a June mini camp because his own contract extension talks weren't progressing fast enough.

And money wasn't the root of all of their problems, either. Jeremy Shockey spent the offseason telling people how unhappy he was as a Giant, which in turn led the Giants to consider trading him. Then Shockey refused to participate in mini camp, was reportedly in a shouting match with Reese, and nobody knows if he'll show up for training camp or how much of a disruption he'll be. And running back Ahmad Bradshaw, one of the rookie stars of last season, spent 30 days in jail for a probation violation that still hasn't been explained.

And oh, by the way, Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan retired. And three other key defensive players - safety Gibril Wilson and linebackers Kawika Mitchell and Reggie Torbor - left via free agency.

In other words, the last six months haven't exactly been one long, happy victory parade.

"There are always distractions, whether you're on top or not, whether you won three games last year or the championship," Reese said. "But this team is very focused. Our coaching staff does a really good job keeping the team focused on the players who are here and who want to be here and who want to move forward. We have a lot of players who understand what it takes. We have good leadership on this team. I just don't think there will be a lot of distractions for us moving into this season."

Even without the distractions, though, the task is tough. Winning a championship was something most of the players had been striving for all their lives, and it's something the organization had been working toward since its last championship, 17 years earlier. An emotional letdown from such an accomplishment is almost inevitable.

How can it be prevented? How can they regain their desire and their drive? That's one of the themes that will be addressed all summer long.

"I'm going to trust that they're going to do that," Spagnuolo said. "We have prepared for it as a coaching staff. And I know Coach Coughlin has. That's what he's great at. He knows the circumstances of the team and he knows which buttons to push and prod. And I'm sure he'll do that again."

From the sounds coming from the players during the spring, Coughlin's button-pushing is already working. It won't be evident until September if they can really begin to recapture last year's magic. But the players insist they're as determined as they ever were before.

"It was good and everything, getting our win in the Super Bowl and being able to prove people wrong," Jacobs said. "But now we're looking forward. The goal we have now is to go out and be able to defend our title."

"Basically it is an even bigger challenge," added center Shaun O'Hara. "I think that it's easy to go in and win the Super Bowl when you are coming off an 8-8 season. The challenge is: Can you do it again?"

It'll help, too, that they head to camp convinced that nobody believes they can repeat. Just like nobody believed they could beat the New England Patriots and win the Super Bowl last year.

"That helps," Reese said. "Players are funny kind of creatures. They feel disrespected, that everybody's overlooking us, that we won the championship but nobody is really respecting that we won the championship. That gives them a little bit of a chip. That doesn't really bother me any, but players are different. They take that a little bit personal. So if that gives us a little bit of a chip on our shoulder, that's good. That's a good thing."

 

[CrazyCowboy]

I love these jealous reports of our talent.

 

[DaBoys4Life]

The biggest challenger to Super repeat for the Giants are the Giants themselves. You can't call winning the Super Bowl a fluke, but overcoming their long odds of getting there and winning it two years in a row is very very unlikely.

so then how would you explain teams that win it one year and then just die off the next or don't even make the play offs the next year. The giants winning was a fluke and IDC what any one says they we're ready to get rid of Eli and the Coach half way through the season last year

 

[Alexander]

The Giants will absolutely positively not repeat.

 

[Bigdog]

Roger Goodell has lifted Adam Jones suspension if he stays out of trouble this summer. I presuming that this reporter is just speculating since I have not hear anything that Goodell will do this. I thought he was no going to make a decision until the beginning of the season in Sept. Did I miss something or am I reading into this too much?

 

[yeahyeah]

The Giants wont repeat. That was the best game Eli will ever play. No way Opie strikes gold twice

 

[big dog cowboy]

so then how would you explain teams that win it one year and then just die off the next or don't even make the play offs the next year. The giants winning was a fluke and IDC what any one says they we're ready to get rid of Eli and the Coach half way through the season last year

How would you explain and IDC what anyone says?

Make up your mind.

 

[dogunwo]

How would you explain and IDC what anyone says?

Make up your mind.

hilarious

 

[The Panch]

I'll be the first to admit their offense is going to get significantly better with Bradshaw, Boss and especially Smith(who has the potential to be a 1,000 yard receiver) going into their second year and Shockey and Plax coming back healthy. It's their defense that's going to downgrade. Folks can fall in love with Osi and Tuck all they want, but Strahan was still the best player on that D-line. He was the only one you couldnt run on and still drew more double teams than anybody. Plus, they took some hits in the secondary and LB position.