The Patriots knew the Giants had the potential to be explosive on offense, and New England decided to take a conservative approach on defense. And it worked wonders for most of the game.
“I tip my hat to them,’’ said Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. “They had a sound approach: don’t let us get one-on-one matchups so we couldn’t get the big play - we’ve been very effective with that. Prove that we could be disciplined enough to take these long, methodical drives and put it in the end zone. Sure enough, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Their strategy was working.’’
The Giants opened with a 10-play drive, but it only amounted to 35 yards and a punt.
It was the offense that took a safety on the first snap of the game, which not only cost the Patriots 2 points, but it put the defense right back onto the field.
The Giants scored their only true touchdown of the game on that drive to lead, 9-0.
The Patriots’ defense pitched a shutout for the next 26:41 of game time, which allowed the offense to rip off 17 straight points.
And then the Patriots didn’t score after the first possession of the second half.
That’s simply not good enough.
The defense held the Giants to two field goals in the third quarter while the offense did nothing after the opening-drive TD.
“They did a great job,’’ receiver Wes Welker said of his team’s defense. “They kept us in it, got the ball out, did a lot of great things out there. In the end, it just wasn’t enough.’’
The Patriots were not going to let receiver Victor Cruz beat them. He had only four catches for 25 yards as Kyle Arrington did a tremendous job in the slot, with help over the top.
“Specifically on third down they were bracketing me - keep one guy underneath, one over top - so a lot of credit to those guys defensively because they did a good job,’’ Cruz said.
“They kind of just forced us to run the ball a little bit. We saw that and just took advantage of it. I feel like we gashed them in moments where we thought we could win the game.’’
