Giants... Disciplined

In Peter King's MMQ, he notes that the Giants are acting a lot like the Patriots in how they have bought into their coaches coaching styles. One example is the discipline that the Giants have shown during their three playoff games. King says:

In the playoffs, the Giants have turned the ball over once in three games. They're plus-five in turnover differential. They're plus-eight in penalty differential; they've committed 14 to their foes' 22

Just to give you an idea how that compares to the Patriots, so far in their 2 games they have been called for 8 penalties (for 93 yards).

So... the per game pentalty average in the playoffs is:

Giants - 4.67
Patriots - 4

For the Patriots however, having a Jeff Triplette crew officiating one of your games is an advantage. As we have discussed here before, Triplette is one of the leaders in calling the fewest amount of penalties during a game, especially for a home team.

It will be interesting to see who the officiating crew is come Super Bowl Sunday. But if these trends continue, don't expect a lot of yellow hanky's laying on the field on the evening of Feb 3rd.

As for the game itself, I think the Giants have a better chance than what most people are giving them. Over at PFT, they compared Eli to the Tom Brady of 2001. Could this be the beginning of something special for Peyton's younger brother? Will Peyton soon become known as "Eli's older brother"? If you recall, the Tom Brady of 2001 was up against impossible odds when his Patriots team were heavy underdogs in the Super Bowl that year when they matched up against the "Greatest show on Turf" St. Louis Rams. You know how that turned out, could this be the year the Giants do something similar.