Giants vs Patriots: Examining the New York Giants' Indoor Games in 2011

With Super Bowl XLVI being played on the fast track inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, both the New York Giants' and New England Patriots' potent offenses should flourish, right? 

Before we make any assumptions, let's look at how the Giants fared indoors during the 2011-2012 regular season. 

New York Giants (2-1 indoors in 2011)

The Giants beat the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys in domed stadiums this season. Their lone loss came at the hands of the New Orleans Saints, who are the best home team in football.

Arizona Cardinals 

The Giants' squeaked by the Cardinals in Phoenix in Week 4 31-27 on a 29-yard touchdown catch by Hakeem Nicks with 2:39 remaining. 

New York trailed 20-10 entering the fourth quarter, then Manning orchestrated a great come-from-behind win. 

The teams traded touchdowns in the first half of the final stanza, but the Nicks touchdown was the final dagger. 

On the drive leading up to the go-ahead score, Manning eluded the rush and found the still rather unknown Victor Cruz for a first down in Cardinals' territory. Before being hit by Arizona defenders, he went to the ground on his own and fumbled the football.

Because he wasn't trying to advance the football and was "giving himself up," the referees deemed it not to be a fumble and the Giants kept the ball.  

Offensively, Manning had a marvelous performance, going 27-of-40 for 321 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Their running game struggled, which became a trend in 2011, as they only totaled 54 yards on 24 carries.

Defensively they were gashed in the running game allowing nearly 150 yards on 32 carries with three touchdowns.

Kevin Kolb threw for 237 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

Not their greatest effort, but a respectable one nonetheless.  

New Orleans Saints 

Like every other team that went into the Superdome to face the Saints in 2011, the Giants ran into a buzz saw. Drew Brees feverishly picked apart the defense, throwing for 368 yards and four touchdowns in the 49-24 rout. 

New Orleans accumulated a ridiculous 205 yards on 30 carries with three touchdowns.

The Saints racked up 577 total yards and were ahead 21-3 at halftime. 

Playing from behind, Manning fired the ball 47 times and did rack up 406 yards and two touchdowns. He found Cruz on a 72-yard bomb in the second half, but it was too little, too late.

Dallas Cowboys 

This game was the dawn of the Giants' current run at the Super Bowl. They needed a win over their nemesis to keep pace atop the NFC East and it needed to come on the road. 

It was quite the shootout with a total of six touchdown passes thrown and over 950 yards of total offense combined. 

A 50-yard touchdown from Tony Romo to Dez Bryant with 5:41 left looked to put an end to the Giants' chances, as it gave the Cowboys a 34-22 lead. 

Then, the clutch, never-say-die Manning appeared.  

He led two touchdown drives and Jacobs ran it in from one-yard out to give New York the lead for good, 37-34 after Miles Austin was missed down the sideline on Dallas' second-to-last drive.

This is when everyone really began to realize how potent the Giants' offense could be. 

Conclusion 

Like most teams with a competent quarterback and speedy receivers, the Giants are scary playing in a dome. 

They accumulated tons of yardage and points and played in three legitimate shootouts. Manning faces a relatively inferior Patriots' secondary and should be able to connect frequently with his trio of tremendous wideouts. 

With that being said, I expect Tom Coughlin to feature Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw more. 

The Patriots with Tom Brady and his tight end tandem, are obviously welcoming the fact that they're playing in a dome too.  

We've seen No. 12 piece together some incredible performances on fast tracks in the past.

However, New England did not play one game indoors in 2011.

As evidenced by the Giants' defensive efforts in domes this season, they too have trouble with balanced teams that can move the football in a variety of different ways.

We should be in for a higher scoring game than the 17-14 battle four years ago despite the recently improved play from both defenses.

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