Two Years After Super Bowl XLII Do You Still B-ELI-Eve It?

When the New York Giants come to my neck of the woods in Albany, N.Y. for Training Camp, I've come to learn as expectations go, never get too high off a good year or too low off a bad one.  Their first year here in 1996 they were flat out dreadful, yet in 1997 they won the NFC East. 

After their last Super Bowl appearance, many were thinking they'd build and regroup from that only to sink back into a mediocre state.  Certainly one could make that case for any team in the NFL not named the Colts, Patriots or now I suppose the Steelers.

But while the Patriots couldn't reach perfection, the Giants finally reached and exceeded their potential.

From the outset on paper sure the Giants still had stars like Antoino Pierce, Osi Umenyiora, Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress, but they had quite the tumultuous offseason. 

Tiki Barber was out the door, Michael Strahan was close to follow.  Swiftly kicked out the door were oft-injured underachievers Luke Petitgout, LaVar Arrington and Carlos Emmons.  And Kawika Mitchell was the "only signing of significance."

They still had a much maligned coach and quarterback in Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning.  A new GM in Jerry Reese and a rookie defensive coordinator in Steve Spagnuolo.  And to this team pegged as a Super Bowl contender before the 2006 season was now being reduced to a team that would go 6-10 just as much as it could 10-6.

However, as they did at the end of the 2006 season, they learned how to listen, they played like they wanted to be Giants and they just plain became focused. 

Luckily the Giants talent evaluators hit the jackpot in finding not only a bevy of homegrown players but diamonds in the rough to boot. 

Ernie Accorsi, the man who as Baltimore Colts GM was forced into trading John Elway to the Denver Broncos, finally got the reverse dividends this time around.  And more importantly Jerry Reese absolutely hit it out of the park with his first draft as GM. 

Aaron Ross,  Steve Smith, Jay Alford, Zak DeOssie, Kevin Boss, Adam Koets, Michael Johnson and Ahmad Bradshaw all played a role in the Giants taking home Super Bowl XLII. 

In addition to Mitchell, Reese made other shrewd signings such as Domenik Hixon, Madison Hedgecock, an early contributor in Reuben Droughns and though we wouldn't know it until very late Lawrence Tynes.

The offense looked very game from the start as the same pair who would hook up for the Giants last score of the season, started out with a boom on the first drive of their first game. 

However, it took the defense a little while to adapt, though after the second half in Washington we learned it was more about making adjustments to a new scheme than a lack of talent. 

From there the Giants rolled, in fact steam-rolled the Eagles as the Giants went on to win six in a row.  Pierce was becoming a true team leader, Osi back in super-star form and Justin Tuck emerged with a breakout year of stardom as well. 

They then proceeded to take us on a roller-coaster ride once again, getting flattened by the Vikes, tripped up by the Cowboys, while steadying themselves somewhat against the Bears. 

After that they hit their stride in Buffalo with the ground game and the defense, digging out of a 14-0 deficit to win decisively and clinch a playoff berth and their tenth win.

Then it was New England and the Giants only seemed to gain confidence, they embraced the under-dog role with their backs up against the wall and just simply ran with it.  They didn't win but it turned out that the "dog" did learn some new tricks.

Finally the Giants started out on the road to revenge tour, the same road that they'd take to a record eleven road wins, the only NFC Wild Card team to ever do it. 

Upon only gaining minus three yards in the early going, New York absolutely thrashed the Bucs and Jeff Garcia.  They made the adjustments they had to make, had faith in Manning to make plays in the air and he did just that in picking the Bucs apart. 

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