Brady: Patriots' History With Giants 'Won't Have Any Bearing' On Sunday's Game
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- There's no question that two of the most devastating days in Tom Brady's career were delivered by the New York Giants.
The first, unforgettably, came in February 2008, when the Giants' D-line ruined Brady's night and with it, the Patriots' quest for a perfect 19-0 season.
Brady was denied the opportunity for some shred of vengeance four seasons later, when Eli Manning and the Giants rallied in the fourth quarter to once again beat the Patriots in a Super Bowl.
Even though Brady has gone on to win one more Super Bowl last year and is currently in the middle of one of the greatest seasons of his career, the quarterback seems to have more respect than fear of the New York Giants.
"No, they're a good team," Brady said when asked if the sight of the Giants "disgusts" him. "They've always played us pretty tough. We're expecting their best. They've got some really good players, they're obviously really well-coached. They're just a tough team."
The recent history between the two teams includes a pair of regular-season contests that both came down to the wire. In Week 17 of the 2007 season, Brady set the single-season touchdown record in the Meadowlands in a 38-35 Patriots victory. In the 2011 regular season, Eli Manning led a game-winning drive in the game's final minutes to pull out a 24-20 win for New York.
Still, folks will always associate the Giants and Patriots with those two Super Bowls.
"We haven't' won as many of them as I would have liked to have won," Brady said. "I would much rather have won them than lost them, but they won't have any bearing on this week or what the matchups are. It's a totally different team and game and situation and so forth."
Brady then shared his appreciation for the Giants' place in NFL history.
"They've got a great organization, they've had a great organization for a long time. They've got some great history with a lot of players, one of the oldest franchises in the NFL," Brady said. "There's just a lot of history with the team. ... It's a very good team and they're tough on defense. So we're going to have to play well."
That list bit about the tough defense may have been a bit of an oversell, as the Giants rank 31st out of 32 teams in pass yards allowed per game, 28th in passing touchdowns allowed, and dead last in sacks. (The Giants have nine sacks on the season; by contrast, the Patriots compiled eight sacks in their Week 2 win at Buffalo.) The Giants are currently a first-place team, but that's as much by default as it is anything else. The other three NFC East teams are a combined 9-15.
But the grim reality of New York's defensive woes just hammers home the point that while though the helmets, jerseys, quarterbacks and head coaches may be the same, this weekend's matchup will feature two very different teams in two very different places in 2015.
