You would think that being a fan of the 4-time Super Bowl Champion Giants would be great- Especially compared to the fan life of green teams like the Jets and Eagles. But the fact is, being a Giants fan accelerates the growth of gray hairs.
Why is it that when the Giants are SUPPOSED to win games- the ones when all of the talking heads predict them to win (like the Cowboys last week)- You can bet the ranch on them losing. But on the contrary- Games which the G-Men are unanimously predicted to lose- they find a way to win. I call this consistent. Consistently INCONSISTENT. And forget about covering point spreads…the Giants don’t play that.
The 2011 season started eerily similar, high expectations for the first game against the Redskins, in which the G-men played very poorly and lost. After winning the next game, the Giants romped the highly touted Eagles. Then just when you wanted to form a Big-Blue-Bandwagon, they get crushed by the terrible Seahawks, not to mention a similar awful loss to the Redskins again.
But when push came to shove, and their backs were to the wall to be eliminated from post season play…the Giants won 6 in a row, and the Super Bowl.
In 2010, a week 3 loss to the terrible Titans, was followed by a 17-3 dismantling of the feared Chicago Bears.
In 2007, the Giants not only underperformed in the opener against the Cowboys, but then lost to the Packers as well. After a mid-season win streak, they lost to vastly inferior teams like the Redskins, Vikings and Cowboys, but when faced with playoff elimination the Giants stepped up.
The Giants put a beaten on the Bills in the snow to become part of the famous 12% of teams who have lost their first two games, but still made the playoffs. The Giants didn’t just run the table in the playoffs as a Wild-Card, they beat the 18-0 Patriots in the Superbowl, defying all the odds makers who picked against the G-men in every game of the playoffs, as well as the Superbowl- just like last year!
The Giants recipe for success seems to be this: Low expectations + backs to the wall + everyone thinking the Giants will lose = Backing into the playoffs and taking home the Lombardi trophy! Sign me up!
– written by Andy Pritikin – Featured Columnist