Green Bay Packers vs New York Giants: 5 Reasons We'll See Deja Vu of 2008

We all remember the legendary NFC Championship between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants on Jan. 20, 2008. It was a frigid day in Lambeau, and the Giants went on to play in the Super Bowl in an upset overtime victory on the road.

A lot has changed since then for the Packers. 

They have a young elite quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, another Lombardi trophy and a 15-1 record. 

The only thing that will remain the same this coming Sunday is the result of the game between these two heavyweights. 

The Packers season will come to an abrupt end this Sunday. And it's not because Victor Cruz has better dance moves than B.J. Raji.

Giants Pass Rush

Look past the fact that the New York Giants are 29th in the league in passing defense. This is because they had to go up against Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Tony Romo twice. Oh yeah, they had to go up against Matt Ryan last week, too. 

They were the only team in the league that had to play the Saints, Packers and Patriots. The Cowboys were no slouch offensively either. 

The Giants had 48 sacks this season which was tied for the third best total in the NFL. Jason Pierre-Paul had 16.5 of them. Osi Umenyiora had another nine. 

What a strong pass rush does is it takes away time from Rodgers to release the ball. He has to make quicker decisions. It's the only way any team can stop an elite quarterback. Rodgers can't be stopped, but this pass rush can definitely at least contain Rodgers. 

A great pass rush can also kill drives. One sack can put a team in a precarious position and force it to punt. It also hurries the quarterback, and if he makes a bad decision, he's more susceptible to interceptions, which the Giants are good at forcing. They had 20 this season. 

Experience Is Everything

Remember the Old Spice commercial with Bruce Campbell where he said, "Experience is everything?"

Well he was right. The New York Giants have been here before. 

Other than the New Orleans Saints, they're probably the hottest team right now. It's really reminiscent of what happened four years ago. They had an okay regular season, got hot at the end and won the Super Bowl.

Most of the guys are the same. Eli Manning, Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs and Tom Coughlin are all people who were there when the Giants trumped all odds and won the Super Bowl. 

They're the same team that knocked off the 18-0 Patriots. Why can't they knock off the Packers?

Packers Defense

The Green Bay Packers may be 15-1, but their defensive struggles have been well documented. They're last in the league in defense, but first in interceptions.

While Eli Manning has been susceptible to throwing interceptions throughout his career, he's only thrown one pick in the last three games. When Eli's hot, he tones down on the interceptions and pumps up his touchdowns. 

He has solid threats in Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz who will easily be able to exploit the Packers defense. It's also important to note that the Packers really haven't had much competition this year other than the Saints and Giants. 

Both of those teams lost to the Packers by one possession. So expect Manning to be able to move the chains and score, score, score. 

Glaring Aaron Rodgers Stat

Aaron Rodgers is 3-13 in games decided by four or less. 

Shocking right? 

It's true eight of those games came in his first two seasons as a starter, but he's just 3-5 since then, which is rather glaring for a quarterback of Rodgers' caliber.

Most of the time this year he was able to blow out his opponents. Most of his opponents this year were also not very good.

The closest game he played in was against, yup you guessed it, the Giants. He led the Packers down the field in the last drive with two quick passes and helped the Packers win the game. That being said, just because the Giants lost in the regular season, it doesn't mean they'll lose again in the postseason. Just ask the Patriots.

If it's one flaw Rodgers has had throughout his career, it's succeeding in these close games. He's getting better at these close margin games, but let's just see how he handles pressure. He's been so good that he hasn't had to deal with much. It'll be interesting to see how he does in a tight ball game late in the fourth. 

Eli

We mentioned in another slide how Eli is playing on top of his game. 

Now we want to tell you that saying that is a major understatement. 

The fact of the matter is Manning has never played better. Yes, even better than the Super Bowl year. He almost broke the 5,000-yard mark this year for the first time, and he's going up against a team that gives up a ton of yards.

He limited his interceptions this year and has been doing a better job not making turnovers. This is a huge improvement going up against the Packers, who force plenty of interceptions.

And finally, he has deep threats that can be game-breakers in Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. 

If the Giants win this game, it's ultimately going to be because of Eli. He has all the confidence and tools to outscore Aaron Rodgers. He also has the defense to stop his counterpart a few times.

An upset is very possible. Lambeau faithful should be scared.