IF it’s true that a football team is only as strong as its weakest link, then it’ll take 46 other players, more than a dozen coaches and some 78,000 sets of lungs to help Giants cornerback Dave Thomas keep the Vikings’ megastar receivers – Randy Moss and Cris Carter – from enjoying a touchdown taunt-a-thon en route to Tampa.
True, the Vikings possess an offensive arsenal like none the Giants have seen this season. If they couldn’t get the ball away from the Titans and gave up 38 points to the Rams, without Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk, it’s only natural to fear Moss, Carter, Robert Smith and Daunte Culpepper behind a Pro Bowl-stacked offensive line.
These Vikings aren’t the Eagles, who were psyched out when they got off the bus, floored after the opening kickoff and had no offensive weapons to counter the Giants’ assault on Donovan McNabb. Minnesota won a playoff game here in 1997 and Smith ripped off 146 yards last December in a Viking outdoor, cold-weather 34-17 rout of Big Blue.
So, this won’t be easy, but the Giants can – and will – get this done.
The key will be John Fox’s defensive schemes, which have been the best in football late in the season. They will feature a mixture of blitzes, spying and confusing coverages which, combined with the decibel level and chill (even if not arctic) will confuse Culpepper, who’s still a first-year starter, whatever his stats.
They also will call for making the Viking receivers pay for every catch. No freebies over the middle. Instead of a five-yard slant and a 60-yard dash, it’ll be a five-yard slant and a forearm to the neck. The Jags’ Jimmy Smith can tell them what to expect.
Michael Strahan, Micheal Barrow and Jessie Armstead are at the top of their games and Jason Sehorn is close to where he used to be. Cornelius Griffin can bull-rush on one play, run-stop on a second and spy the QB on the third. And Shaun Williams can blow up an offense with his blitzes and hits in the secondary.
Then again, the Giants’ best defense could be a good offense. The Minnesota defense, to be kind, is not good. John Randle can trash-talk and paint his face purple all he wants, but he’ll have to do better than the no sacks-no tackles performance in the 1997 playoffs here.
Kerry Collins will be able to move the chains, run the clock and score enough to give the Giants enough of a cushion to withstand whatever damage the Vikings can do in 22 minutes or so of possession.
Perhaps the biggest psychological edge for the Giants is the spread. For them to be underdogs, at home, in the championship game against a dome team with no D is just the type of us-against-the-world slight that takes teams far.
Line: Vikings -2 1/2.
The pick: Giants 27, Vikings 23
RAIDERS (-6) over Ravens
There are some who are likening the Ravens to the Super Bowl XXV Giants, comparing Trent Dilfer to Jeff Hostetler. The thought is, a great defensive team doesn’t need the QB to win the game, it needs him to not lose it.
But the difference is that Hostetler, in 1990, was an unknown quantity; Dilfer is a known quantity – he’s terrible. Hostetler threw an unbelievable TD pass to Stephen Baker in the Super Bowl and became a first-rate gunner for the Raiders; Dilfer always has and always will be terrible.
The Ravens do have a great defense, the Jets’ 524 yards notwithstanding. But they can’t keep winning with a guy who completed just five passes in Tennessee. They can’t rely on a 90-yard blocked field goal return against the Raiders, the best-balanced team in the final four. The people of Tampa had better get ready for the invasion of lunatic Raider fans.Raiders 20, Ravens 10
LAST WEEK’S RECORD: 5-2-1.