Super Bowl 2012: Giants Trash-Talking Patriots Heading into Super Sunday

Generally speaking, the New England Patriots have achieved much of their success over the past decade quietly and without providing their opponents with bulletin-board material. That certainly isn't the way of the New York Giants though, as they have made their true feelings known.

One player in particular who hasn't been shy about speaking his mind is Giants wide receiver Mario Manningham. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Manningham made it known that he hopes Patriots wide-receiver-turned-defensive-back Julian Edelman is covering him during the Super Bowl.

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I hope he’s out there when we play them. I don’t want to sound like that, but you know what I mean. To our advantage, I hope he’s out there.

It’s a different stage. This ain’t regular season. That ain’t your real position, so we’re going to try to expose you. It’s all or nothing now. That ain’t your position, this is the Super Bowl and we want you to play that position.

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Perhaps it wasn't the best idea for Manningham to give Edelman and the Patriots extra motivation, but he certainly makes a valid point. The troubles of New England's secondary, which ranked 31st in the league against the pass this season, were well documented and led head coach Bill Belichick to use Edelman as a defensive back.

While Edelman has held up fairly well and hasn't been exposed too much, he simply isn't qualified to be covering the Giants' top-notch receivers like Manningham, Hakeem Nicks, or Victor Cruz. In fact, on the final drive against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, Edelman covered Anquan Boldin one on one, allowing Boldin to help the Ravens march down the field.

Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff missed a chip-shot field goal to tie it so all was forgotten, but putting Edelman in such a high-pressure spot nearly cost the Pats a trip to the Super Bowl. It remains to be seen whether Belichick will stick with that scheme in the Super Bowl, but he seems stubborn enough that it makes me think he will.

Manningham wasn't simply talking trash, he was also talking truth. Because of New England's explosive offense led by the likes of quarterback Tom Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski, and wide receiver Wes Welker, the team's defensive deficiencies have been covered up for the most part.

During the regular season teams with far worse passing games than the Giants were able to pick apart the Pats' secondary, so I don't see what's stopping the G-Men from doing the same. New England probably hasn't faced a receiving corps as strong as New York's this season, and quarterback Eli Manning is red hot.

If anything, Manningham's trash talk may have been strategic. He is almost goading the Patriots into putting having Edelman cover him. Perhaps Belichick was thinking about changing things up, but it's conceivable that, because of Manningham's comments, his ego could get in the way.

Edelman will likely only be a small part of what decides the Super Bowl, but Manningham and the Giants have made themselves very clear: If the Patriots are going to overlook a very obvious weakness, then Big Blue is more than willing to exploit it.