New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers: Breaking Down Their Playoff Showdown

This Sunday's showdown in Green Bay is by far the biggest game of the 2011 season.

The New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. A rematch of the 2007 NFC Championship Game in Lambeau Field.

Eli Manning vs. Aaron Rodgers; a battle of former Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks. It's the stuff made for Hollywood.

The Packers finished out the 2011 season at 15-1 and had a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs.

The Giants finished out the 2011 season at 9-7 and won the NFC East division crown and got the No. 4 seed.

This past Sunday, they easily defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 24-2, in MetLife Stadium, which earned them the right to play Green Bay on Sunday.

The Giants and Packers did meet earlier in the season, and during this story, we will get to that December game a little later.

This is a full preview of the showdown of this coming Sunday night's game between two of the top teams in the NFC.

And now, it's time to break down the Giants-Packers Sunday showdown.

December 4, 2011: Packers 38, Giants 35

In Week 13 of the schedule, the Packers traveled to New Jersey to play the Giants at MetLife Stadium.

At the time, the Packers were 12-0 and looking for the perfect season. The Giants were 6-5 and in the middle of a three-game losing streak.

The Giants needed to have a good game to keep their second half slide from continuing.

In the first half, the Giants hung in with Green Bay and only trailed 21-17 at halftime. Most people expected Green Bay to blow out the Giants similar to the Saints doing to them in the week before.

The Giants were down 35-27 late in the game and Eli Manning drove the field once again like he had done all season long and threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks, making it 35-33. A D.J. Ware run for the two-point conversion made it 35-35.

The only problem was they gave Aaron Rodgers the ball with less than a minute left, and a chance for him to drive down the field.

Which is exactly what he did, getting the ball down into Giants territory, setting up a 30-yard game-winning field goal by Mason Crosby, and the Packers escaped with a 38-35 win.

Both quarterbacks were great on this day; Aaron Rodgers threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns and Eli Manning threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns.

I still would have liked to have seen what would have happened if this game went into overtime.

The Giants did get dropped to 6-6, but they hardly looked like a defeated team on December 4. The Packers were just the team with the ball last and made the final play.

Giants Offense vs. Packers Defense

On offense, Eli Manning just may have had his best season in the NFL.

This season: 4,933 yards, 29 touchdown passes with only 16 interceptions, a quarterback rating of 92.9 and six come-from-behind victories for Eli this year.

If not for Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, Eli would easily be in consideration for the NFL MVP Award this year.

His offense is loaded with weapons.

Victor Cruz had 1,539 yards and nine touchdowns and Hakeem Nicks had 1,192 yards and seven touchdowns. Jake Ballard and Mario Manningham each had four touchdowns and combined for over 1,100 yards.

The running game ranked last in the NFL, which is strange for a Giants team because they are usually built for the run.

But Brandon Jacobs last week ran for over 100 yards against the Falcons and looked like the Jacobs of old, so if he can run like he did a week ago, Green Bay will have problems.

On defense, the Packers have a solid unit but are very prone to giving up a ton of points.

Clay Matthews only had six sacks, whereas he had 13.5 the year before.

Charles Woodson had seven interceptions, Charlie Peprah had five and Tramon Williams had four, so their secondary can make plays.

But they gave up a total of 359 points as a defense, and there were games where they easily gave up 30 or more points against teams with good offenses, just like against the Giants where they surrendered 35 points and gave up 447 total yards.

A season ago, the Packers had the No. 2-ranked defense, allowing only 240 points, whereas in 2011, they are 19th ranked.

The Giants can score points on Green Bay's defense. It just depends on how few of mistakes the Giants make that will keep them in the game.

Giants Defense vs. Packers Offense

On offense, the Packers may have the best unit in the NFL.

They scored 560 points, which was No. 1 in the NFL, averaging 35 points per game.

Aaron Rodgers will likely win the 2011 NFL MVP Award, throwing for 4,643 yards, 45 touchdown passes and only six interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 122.5.

Jordy Nelson had 1,263 yards and 15 touchdowns, Greg Jennings had 949 yards and nine touchdowns, Jermichael Finley had 767 and eight touchdowns, James Jones had 635 yards and seven touchdowns and Donald Driver had 445 yards and six touchdowns.

Rodgers has a ton of weapons to throw to, and the Giants secondary will have their hands full. Jennings is returning from a knee injury he suffered a few weeks ago, but he is now practicing with the team and is expected to play.

The running game for the Packers isn't the best. Ryan Grant and James Starks had a combined three touchdowns.

But the Packers aren't built for the running game. So if Grant or Starks don't get going, it won't make or break them.

On defense, the Giants have been playing much better as of late. Earlier in the season, they were looking like a disaster.

Justin Tuck missed four games and only had five sacks due to nagging injuries all season. Osi Umenyiora played in only nine games, yet he had nine sacks.

Jason Pierre-Paul took another step to super-stardom with 16.5 sacks and had 73 total tackles. JPP made a case for NFL Defensive Player of the Year with his dominating play on the field in 2011.

The secondary of the Giants will have its hands full. Corey Webster, Aaron Ross, Prince Amukamara, Antrel Rolle, Kenny Phillips and Deon Grant will have to play their best football in trying to cover and stop the likes of Nelson, Jennings and Finley.

Against Atlanta, the Giants held them to 247 total yards and no points. The safety was not scored on the Giants defense, so the Giants pitched a shutout at home last Sunday.

If the Giants want any chance of stopping Green Bay and Rodgers, they have to play like they did against Atlanta, but with even more pressure from the front four on Rodgers.

2007 NFC Championship Game Rematch

January 20, 2008. The NFC Championship Game. A trip to Glendale to face the 18-0 Patriots.

We all remember that Sunday night, almost four years ago where the Giants traveled to Lambeau Field, playing in negative-three degree weather to face the Packers, who were the clear favorites going in.

Everyone thought that Brett Favre would out-class Eli Manning playing in the frozen tundra. It was the complete opposite.

Manning threw for 246 yards and although he didn't have any touchdown passes, he didn't throw any interceptions either.

Plaxico Burress had a tremendous game, dominating Al Harris who was covering him, with 11 catches and 156 yards.

Brett Favre on the other hand, while he threw two touchdown passes, threw two interceptions, including one that was picked off by Corey Webster in overtime after the Packers won the coin-toss and got the ball first.

It all came down to the leg of Lawrence Tynes, and we all remember that awful feeling at first.

He had missed a 43-yarder with less than seven minutes to go and he shanked a 36-yarder that would have won the game for the Giants at the end of regulation.

Yet, following Webster's interception, Tynes got one more chance to win it from 47 yards out.

Only this time, Tynes took the snap and drilled it down the middle and gave the Giants a 23-20 overtime win which sent them to Super Bowl XLII to face the Patriots.

We all know how the story ended for the Giants two weeks later. They won the Super Bowl, 17-14, and ended the Patriots bid for perfection.

But they had to go through the frozen conditions of Lambeau Field to get there. Four years later, they find themselves in a rematch with a chance to play in the NFC Championship.

Prediction

I am going to be very bold with this one. Because I'm going with the upset here.

The Giants have been playing in must-win games ever since Christmas Eve when they defeated the New York Jets, 29-14.

If you want to go back even further, the Giants have been in must-win situations since they beat the Dallas Cowboys, 37-34, back in Week 14.

If there is one thing we have learned from the playoffs, it's that the best team doesn't always win, it's the hottest team.

The Packers did that last year, clinching a wild-card spot on the last week of the season, then went on their run, knocking off the Eagles, Falcons and Bears before they went on to win Super Bowl XLV and beating the Steelers.

And if you even want to go back four years ago, the Giants did the same thing, by getting in as a wild-card team in Week 16, played the Patriots very tough in a losing effort in Week 17, then knocked off the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers, then beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

The Giants will have to score, and score, and score more points. They can't have many three-and-outs. They will have to light up the scoreboard at Lambeau Field because on the other side, Rodgers will be doing the same thing.

Rodgers hasn't played since December 25 against the Bears. Matt Flynn played in Week 17 against the Lions, so Rodgers hasn't played in a live game in almost a month. Rodgers is one of the game's best, but it will be interesting to see if he has any rust on him.

On the other side, it will be up to JPP, Umenyiora and Tuck to bring the heat and the pressure against Rodgers all game long. They can not stop putting pressure on him because he doesn't make too many mistakes.

Rodgers only threw six interceptions all year, one of them was against the Giants, by Chase Blackburn. They will need to make Rodgers make those kind of mistakes.

The defense will need to sack Rodgers and put him on his back and force him to make bad throws. The Giants sacked Rodgers twice last month in their game.

When this game is all set and done, it may come down to who has the ball last. And I think if you give Eli and his group a chance to have the ball last, they will get the job done. He did it six times in the regular season, and I think it will be number seven.

I'm going with the Giants in an upset to beat the defending champions and move on to play in the NFC Championship against either the 49ers or Saints.

Prediction: Giants 42, Packers 35