On Sunday the New York Giants will return to the scene of one of their greatest triumphs from last year's Super Bowl run as they visit the San Francisco 49ers.
Last season the two teams faced off in the NFC Championship game with the 13-3 San Francisco 49ers favored over the 9-7 Giants. The game was a physical, hard fought contest that didn't end until Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes hit a field goal to win it and sent New York to the Super Bowl.
New York used two key turnovers by San Francisco kick returner Kyle Williams to upset the 49ers and then went on to the Super Bowl to beat the New England Patriots for the second time in four years.
"Of course after what happened last year I definitely want to get back at these guys," Williams said to the Associated Press. "We look at it as if they have something that we should have had. We're going to make sure we don't leave anything on the field again."
When the Giants return to San Francisco they will see some old faces as well. Running back Brandon Jacobs and wide receiver Mario Manningham, both members of last season's Super Bowl team, signed with San Francisco in the offseason.
"I'm going to go and play my butt off," Manningham said to ESPNNewYork.com. "Do I have a grudge? No. But am I motivated? Yeah. I am motivated by every game, especially this game. Who wouldn't be motivated by their old team?"
The Giants have been stellar on offense this season, scoring 41 points twice already. Eli Manning has 1,579 yards passing with 10 touchdowns and is completing 65 percent of his passes. The team has the third-best passing offense in the league and is now ranked 12th in rushing after Ahmad Bradshaw's 200 yard effort against the Browns last week.
According to ESPN.com, "Bradshaw and Victor Cruz became the first teammates to rush for 200 yards and catch three TD passes in a game since 1960."
"The Giants are an outstanding team," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said. "They've got an explosive offense. They're very balanced."
The team has a chance to be even more explosive on Sunday if they can get back wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, who has missed the past three games with foot and knee injuries. Nicks has 14 catches for 237 yards and a touchdown in two games this season. He is listed as questionable for Sunday's game.
"I would like to see what the coaches are going to say, what they're going to say about it in the morning (on Sunday) and what the trainers are going to say, but I think I've got a pretty good shot," Nicks said Friday in a statement released by the team.
The Giants will work to protect Manning better this time around than in the NFC Championship game, where he was sacked six times and hit countless others. Amazingly, Manning dropped back to pass 60 times in the game and did not turn the ball over, even though it was raining and he was getting hit with constant pressure.
"That game was certainly something that we thought about all (offseason) even though we won the Super Bowl and we beat them in that game," guard Chris Snee said. "We still walked away saying that we didn't play well, we didn't do our job up front. That can motivate you though the offseason."
The 49ers come into the game after an impressive 45-3 dismantling of the Buffalo Bills last week. The team became the first in NFL history to throw for 300 yards in the air and have 300 yards rushing.
Along with the Atlanta Falcons, who are 5-0, the 49ers are considered to be one of the best teams in the NFC. The Giants aren't far out of that conversation either.
There was some controversy during the week between Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz and 49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers in regards to Cruz's signature salsa touchdown dance. Last season Rogers imitated the dance when he intercepted a pass against the Giants, prompting Cruz to say in his book "Out of the Blue," that he would not forget about it.
According to ESPN.com Rogers said this week: "I like the dance, actually," Rogers said. "I really can't do it as good as him but if I make a play or get an interception on him in my mind, just do his dance."
In response Cruz said in a conference call with reporters that "It's just something that I do for my grandmother," Cruz said on a conference call. "It's something that's sacred to me, it's something that's due to her passing. Before she passed away, it was something dear to me."
During San Francisco's 27-20 regular-season victory over New York last season Rogers did the dance after intercepting an Eli Manning pass that was headed for Cruz
"Why I do it is for her because she told me she loved it so much, and she taught me how to do it and all of that put together. Knowing that, it's just a little slap in the face."
Once Rogers realized it was a tribute, he decided to step back from his comments.
"I'm not gonna do it," Rogers told the Daily News Thursday. "That's a tribute to his grandmother. Once (I heard) that, I threw that out the door. It's definitely out."
While the two teams will fight hard on Sunday, the talk between Cruz and Rogers shows that on some level both sides have respect for one another, which is something that can be a rarity in the NFL these days.
The game should be one of the highlights of Week 6 in the NFL.
