PAT LONGOBARDI — Sports Writer
As the league championship round rolled around, it was hard to believe Lambeau Field would be left in the cold.
The Green Bay Packers were riding high this season after winning Super Bowl XLV against the Pittsburgh Steelers and they looked like the undisputed favorite to win it again.
However, yet another opportunity at a championship, and who does it come down to— you guessed it, the New York Giants.
The Giants had already beaten the Packers in the 2007 NFC Championship game at Lambeau.
Despite defeating the Giants, 38-35, in
week 13 on a last-second field goal, that game was the beginning of the end for the defending champions.
Eli Manning and company avenged the loss by pulling off another round of late-season dramatics, eliminating the Packers at Lambeau Field for the second time in four years, 37-20, in the divisional playoff game.
Rodgers is 2-1 against the Giants since he took over at quarterback in 2008. Manning is 2-2 against the Packers over that span, with the two wins coming when it matters most: the playoffs.
The Packers surely received a lot of attention this season and not just because they won the Super Bowl.
Rodgers, 4,643 yards, 45 TDs, and an unreal six interceptions in the regular season, was one of the top quarterbacks at the position in a
definite year of the quarterback. Rodgers easily set up one of the best offenses not only this season (along with the Patriots, Saints, Giants and Lions) but ever, using every single player on the roster.
Rodgers led his team to 20-straight wins and an almost undefeated season, something that is in the New England neighborhood.
As the top seed in the NFC, that was one strike against the Packers, as the top team has
not fared well in four of the last five years.
It hurt worse that Rodgers had a three-week break until playing the Giants. It is not everyday Rodgers will get sacked four times to go along with multiple dropped passes by his offense and three fumbles lost against the Giants.
In order for the Packers to have shown their success in two championship-caliber seasons, they needed to meet the Giants. Well, technically three seasons as they destroyed the Giants last year in the game that was to keep playoff chances alive.
When a team wins the Super Bowl, they will always be remembered. What the Packers did was a bit different. They won a championship and looked much more threatening and they proved their dominance all season. I think this is a new rivalry that now has to be renewed
maybe every season because of the significance surrounding it. The Giants have found another rival and Manning has earned himself the “Silent Assassin” title every time he meets a cheese head after breaking their hearts again.
