John Delach

The Giants 2008 Improbable Playoff Season

John Delach

October 2012

 Coach Coughlin appeared on his WNBC show on Sunday morning. Sports announcer, Bruce Beck asked him what he told his team about playing in the NFC Championship Game? Coughlin replied with a smile on his face, “I told them that if you win this game, you’ll be something special. If you lose, you’re another team just like the rest.”

I liked the look on his face and how loose he seemed to be. I had my hopes and my doubts. Michael drove down from Connecticut with his wife Jodie, their two sons, Drew, Matty and little Samantha. The boys had on their Giant Jerseys and Sammy was dressed in her Giant cheerleader outfit. We watched the Patriots easily beat the San Diego Chargers despite Tom Brady throwing three interceptions.

The Pats were now 18-0 and only the NFC Champion team stood between them and perfection. They didn’t beat the 14 point-spread winning the game by nine points. They didn’t beat the spread the week earlier, but only bettors should take comfort in this. All you have to do is review the outcome of Bill Belichick coached big games to realize how cruel the Patriots can be. The other teams never had a chance, but Coach Belichick’s teams engineered final scores that were close enough so that the teams’ fans actually believed that with just a couple of coulda, woulda and shouldas their team would have beaten the Pats. “We came so close. If Joe had done this, or Bill hadn’t done that…” fuheddaboudit

And now with the added incentive to have a perfect season, nobody, I say nobody will give the NFC Champion team a chance. This then is what the Giants will face if they beat the Packers. And so, we gathered to watch the game about to be played on the famous frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

The night was clear, but frigid. Coach Coughlin’s face was a measure of the temperature. By game time, it was really red and, as the game progressed, his forehead and cheeks increased in color until they were so red, that shades of purple infiltrated his face. He looked as if he was about to explode.   

Eli began the game well and the team played like wild men on offense and defense dominating the Packers on both sides of the ball. Even so, Green Bay held Big Blue at bay forcing them to settle for two field goals and a 6 to 0 lead.

Their quarterback, Bret Favre, and his receiver, Donald Driver, turned a short pass into a 90-yard touchdown putting the Packers in the lead. The action went back and forth as the lead changed hands two more times until the teams found themselves tied at 20 points each. The Giants remained the aggressor but Giants kicker, Laurence Tynes, missed two field goals in the fourth quarter, the first from 43 yards, the second from 36 yards with seconds left on the clock.

The Packers won the toss in overtime and selected to receive the kickoff. Fortunately, for our side, quarterback, Favre, promptly threw an interception to Giants defensive back, Corey Webster. After the Giants were stopped on third down at the Packer 29 with five yards to go, normally, it would be Coach Coughlin’s decision what to do on fourth down; kick a field goal, punt the ball back to the Packers or go for a first down. Instead, Tynes made the decision for him by sprinting onto the field, before Coughlin decided what he wanted to do.

Michael Eisen, writing for Giants.com reported that Tynes said, “I went out on the field and I didn’t wait for him to say, ‘Go kick.’ This way he would have had to pull me off the field if he didn’t want me to kick it.”

Luckily, our coach accepted Tynes’ cheeky move and let him kick.

Eisen added, “Jeff Feagles, the Giants’ punter and holder, figured he’d have to perform one of those duties on fourth down – he just didn’t know which one. ‘The next thing you know I saw Lawrence running on the field and I thought, ‘Well I guess he (Coughlin) must have said go for it.”

 The coach said later that since Tynes had so much confidence, he decided go for the field goal. We watched without much confidence, but Tynes kicked the 47-yarder straight, true and long enough to sail above the cross bar. Later, having the luxury of watching many replays, I saw the Giant linemen raise their arms as the kick sailed down field. Lawrence Tynes took one good look at the ball and then sprinted to the locker room in the opposite direction before the officials signaled that the kick was good. THE KICK WAS GOOD!

All hell broke loose at 27 Roger Drive. We hugged each other and shouted. Jodie and Mary Ann came running in, the phones started ringing, our daughter Beth called, the whole world called, Dave opened champagne, I broke open my Middleton Irish Whiskey, oh lordy, lordy! Celebration city!! …Only little Sammie slept through it all.

The Giants were the Champions of the National Football Conference. They had won three games all of them on the road against the Number 4, Number 1 and Number 2 Seeded Teams and they were going to Glendale, Arizona for Super Bowl XLII and SO WERE WE!