Tom Coughlin‘s attention shifted to the Patriots the team the Giants will face in the Super Bowl for the second time in four years – immediately after Lawrence Tynes overtime field goal sealed Sundays overtime victory over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
“As always takes place with the (game-winning) field goal, you don’t stop and say to yourself, ‘We won this game. You say, We’re going to the Super Bowl,’ ” Coughlin said on a conference call Monday after the Giants arrived back in the New York area following a cross-country red-eye flight from San Francisco. “We’re going to have time to study.”
“The New England Patriots have won 10 games in a row. They are an outstanding football team, without question. . . . We know what were going to find when we do study a very good, very talented football team that has put together a really outstanding string of wins.”
Coughlin, Eli Manning and the Giants, of course, have experience in spoiling a season for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots. Big Blue ended their bid at perfection in Super Bowl XLII four years ago.
But since losing to the Giants 24-20 in Foxborough on Nov. 6 earlier this season – a game Coughlin noted seems like an awful long time ago – the Pats have outscored opponents 359-188 during a 10-game winning streak.
The Giants will reconvene Tuesday at the Meadowlands for meetings and film review, and they will practice on their home turf for three days beginning Thursday before departing for Indianapolis on Monday.
Coughlin clearly has continued to enjoy this run from a 7-7 record on Dec. 18 to winning what he described as five single-elimination games in a row, which includes playoff victories over Atlanta and Green Bay.
The 65-year-old coach also praised the Giants for being “as locked in as well as any team I’ve ever been associated with” in Saturday’s pregame meetings and for their mental and physical toughness in outlasting the Niners in difficult conditions one night later.
“There’s a great feeling. . . . I’m talking about a real bonding,” Coughlin said. “That’s what I sense and feel. I’ve seen a real responsive team.”
“You could hear a pin drop in those meetings rooms. You could literally feel and sense the acceptance and the concentration. Those are the things that I appreciate. These guys have really brought a very strong businesslike approach to what theyre doing and whatever word you want to use, theres a strong feeling among this group, and its really been a great source of pride for all of us to be associated with them.”
According to Coughlin, the return flight from San Francisco was very loud, as his players deservedly were all excited and remain that way.
That respect and appreciation also is returned toward a head coach who didn’t waver even when his job was being called for in the media and among the fan base while the season seemingly was slipping away last month.
“This might be the defining career season for him,” defensive end Justin Tuck said Monday about Coughlin on WFAN. “I don’t see why he wouldn’t be the top candidate for Coach of the Year considering the pressure that’s on him in New York. It is definitely the type of city that’s about what have you done for me lately? And it just seems every year Coach Coughlin’s job is up for grabs.
“I know its a lot of pressure on him and he has not really wavered either way. You really couldn’t tell if he was a coach that had won four Super Bowls in a row or a coach that was on the hot seat. The whole season long hes stayed even-keeled and stuck to his guns and believed in what this team was going to be about. It’s trickled throughout this entire franchise.”
