NFL Playoff Bracket 2012: Who Had the Toughest Road to Super Bowl XLVI?

It's never an easy path for any team in the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl, no matter how successful they were in the regular season.

Just look at the Green Bay Packers—last year's Super Bowl champions were heavily favored to repeat this season, but that's out the window after their divisional round defeat at the hands of the New York Giants.

The Giants had the toughest road to reach the Super Bowl this year, first needing to beat the Atlanta Falcons in the wild card round to earn the dubious privilege of traveling to Green Bay to face the venerable Packers.

Like most years since head coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning teamed up in 2004, the Giants had an up-and-down season that saw them play well in the first half of the year and then falter in the mid- and late season.

This year, they started at 6-2 before dropping their next four games in a row, with a variety of injuries on both sides of the ball plaguing the team.

Thanks to inconsistent play around their NFC East division, those four straight losses didn't knock the Giants out of playoff contention, and they went on to win three of their final four games, including a Week 17 defeat of the Dallas Cowboys that clinched them the division and a postseason berth.

However, the Giants weren't given much of a chance to repeat their Super Bowl-winning 2007 season this year.

The inconsistencies, the injuries and the fact that they'd have to go through at least the Packers and potentially the New Orleans Saints didn't seem to bode well for the Giants to reach, let alone win, the NFC championship game.

Instead, the Giants stepped up in a big way. They dispatched the Falcons in an impressive fashion in the wild card round, defeating them 24-2 and holding their offense scoreless.

But it was the following week in the divisional round that was supposed to be the most difficult for the Giants. The Packers went 15-1 in the regular season and had the second-highest scoring offense in the league.

To stop and outscore the Packers offense and quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn't an easy task.

Though the Giants defense was assisted by a flat Packers effort that saw Packers receivers drop passes a number of times, New York was impressive in their own right, with Manning going 21-of-33 for 330 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks had seven receptions on nine targets for 165 yards and two scores, and the Giants defense forced three fumbles and picked off Rodgers once. New York eventually won, 37-20.

This week, just the San Francisco 49ers stand between the Giants and their second Super Bowl appearance of the Manning era, but it's not going to be easy. In fact, it may prove even more difficult than the Packers were last week.

The Niners have the strongest defense in the playoffs, have forced more turnovers than any other team in the regular season, and managed to put incessant pressure on the New Orleans Saints offense last week.

San Francisco's secondary is clearly weaker than their defensive front, allowing Saints quarterback Drew Brees to throw for 462 yards, but his receivers were still allowed few opportunities to gain meaningful yards after the catch.

This means that Manning might be able to find himself with an open receiver, but those receivers might not have a chance to take off down the field once they've caught the ball.

Further, Manning will need to get the ball out of his hand without being hit. Evading pressure is going to be a constant concern for him today, and if he doesn't find himself all that successful at it won't likely be a good day for his team.

However, the Giants can still win even if Manning is held in check, it just depends on how well their own defense performs. The Giants have a strong pass rush of their own and their secondary is quite a bit healthier than it was earlier in the season.

All they need to do is force Niners quarterback Alex Smith to make mistakes—or simply have his receivers well-covered enough that he has no choice but to repeatedly throw the ball away—and stop San Francisco's solid run game.

If the Giants can keep the score low enough, they'll be in a better position to pull off the win.

Reaching the Super Bowl is never easy, even if sometimes teams make it appear so.

With the highs and lows the Giants have experienced in 2011, if they pull out a win over San Francisco today, there's no doubt that the Giants' road to the Super Bowl was the most treacherous of any of the teams in this week's conference championship games.