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Super Bowl Capsules: Coughlin has special feeling for this Giants team
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The New York Giants' are Tom Coughlin's team.
The Maras and Tischs own the NFC champions. General manager Jerry Reese built them and made them Super Bowl ready.
This team though is all Coughlin. The expression the players have used in their recent five-game run to the title game is "all in," and it's all in Tom's way. They have bought in 100 percent with their 65-year-old coach, and he is enjoying every second of it.
When the Giants (12-7) ended the Patriots' 20-game regular-season winning streak at home in November, Coughlin was hoisted in the air by his players. He loved it.
When they went through a four-game losing streak right after that, he kept them together. And when they won Sunday, they hugged.
Speaking on a conference call Monday, Coughlin said he has a special feeling and a special vibe for this team, which has overcome injuries and adversity to reach the Super Bowl.
"I talk about an atmosphere that has been created, the cooperation between the players and the coaches and the harmony that is a great feeling that exits," Coughlin said. "It has been that type of feeling that has sustained us over the course of the year, but even more; that has seen people grow closer together."
Coughlin senses a true bond among the players, one that has them all working for a common goal.
"On Saturday night they were locked in as well as any team that I have ever been associated with," said the coach who led the Giants to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots in 2008, "You could hear a pin drop in the meeting rooms when I visited. It started out with special teams, then offense and defense. I walked around and I listened to the meetings. You could really feel and sense the focus and concentration. Those are things I appreciate."
Looking toward the Patriots, Coughlin said the Giants last game with New England seems like it too place a long time ago. He also noted Tom Brady and company are riding a 10-game winning streak.
"They are an outstanding football team," Coughlin said. "Without question to be able to play at home and beat a Ravens team that was playing so well and so physical and so on, they are playing very, very well."
Defensive end Justin Tuck said the Giants came into the playoffs playing their best football, much like the Packers a year ago.
"We were a team, I felt, going into the playoffs, that no one wanted to play," Tuck said in an interview with WFAN. "We wanted to play the 49ers. We wanted to play Green Bay. We wanted the competition. That's who we are. That's how we're built."
Coughlin says his team knows what it wants.
"I understand young people and all that goes with that, but these guys have been able to really create a very strong business-like approach to what they're doing," Coughlin said. "Whether you use the word fellowship or whatever word you want to use, there's a strong, strong feeling among this group. It's been a great source of pride for all of us as coaches."
The team arrived back in New Jersey early Monday after a loud and happy flight during which Coughlin said the players exchanged high-fives, shook hands and shared a look into each other eyes.
The Giants will practice Thursday, Friday and Saturday and head to Indianapolis Monday for a second Super Bowl in four years.
"For us, you relish it, because I'm four years older now," Tuck said. "And when you first get there, you think you're going to go every year. Now, you realize nothing's promised to you. And it's tough to get back. So, this is a special opportunity."
Notes: Rookie S Tyler Sash suffered concussion-type symptoms in the game and was undergoing tests. ...Coughlin was upset Eli Manning was hit so many times in the game, but gave credit to the 49ers defense. ...Coughlin laughed when asked about Terry Bradshaw getting an earful from Ann Mara, the widow of owner Wellington Mara, after the game. "I know that in many ways, many times Mrs. Mara's attitude is reflective of the way that we would hope our team plays. She has great energy and tremendous interest and she is so interested in the team playing well and doing well."
In wake of win, Giants have bad news for fans
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Less than an hour after advancing to the Super Bowl, the New York Giants started delivering the bad news to many of their non-club season ticket holders.
While the Giants were going to Indianapolis to face the New England Patriots on Feb. 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium, most of the non-club season tickets holders weren't.
The Giants sent out emails roughly 50 minutes after their 20-17 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers announcing the results of a random computer selection that was based on seniority. Most emails included the word "unfortunately."
"Talk about a downer," season ticket holder Bob Gray of West Caldwell said after of getting the email while he was still celebrating. "At least they could have waited until the next day.'
Nazo Haroutunian of Hillside in Bergen County was one of the fortunate lottery winners, even though he has been a season ticket holder for only two years.
The 38-year-old was still awake around 11:30 p.m,, waiting for his game-induced palpitations to subside and explaining to his wife how the Super Bowl ticket lottery worked.
"No sooner than I finished telling her, by some act of God, I got three emails from the Giants," he said.
The first was a congratulatory note on making the Super Bowl, The second involved buying team merchandise and the third was word that he could buy Super Bowl tickets, at $900 a pop.
"The palpitations started again," said Haroutunian said, adding that he immediately went on line and started looking for airfares and hotel rooms.
When asked if he was going.
"The short answer is 'Yes!" he said. "I got very very lucky."
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the stadium in Indianapolis has a seating capacity of 68,000 with 12,500 tickets coming off the top for various other needs. The Giants get a 17 ½ percent share of the remaining 55,500,or roughly 9,700.
Giants players, coaches and officials get a share of that total. Team spokesman Pat Hanlon did not immediately know how many were set aside for fans.
-- Tom Canavan
Kraft 'shuddered' when Brady belted on TD plunge
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Patriots owner Robert Kraft "shuddered" when he saw Tom Brady take a crunching hit on a 1-yard touchdown plunge. He even wondered if Brady's back was broken. Such a graceful dive. Such a powerful blow.
"It was scary," Kraft said Monday, his momentary fears quickly put to rest, "but he popped right up."
Brady shook off the body-bending force of Ray Lewis' helmet to his lower back, spiked the ball and punched the air in celebration. He had just scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter of New England's 23-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game Sunday.
He was OK and so are the Super Bowl-bound Patriots, who will face the New York Giants on Feb. 5. But at the instant of impact, there was concern in the owner's box where Kraft was sitting with friends, family members and former Patriots.
"We all shuddered up in the box," he said. "We thought that his back might have been broken."
Another unexpected occurrence also caught Kraft's attention — the vertical leap of the lumbering Brady. He soared high over his offensive line, arcing his back and reaching the ball over the goal line while clutching it with both hands.
"I actually didn't know he had that kind of rise," Kraft said with a smile.
But as Brady was landing, the picture wasn't as pretty.
He had his head toward the ground and his legs up in the air as if he was about to complete a somersault. Then Lewis, who had lined up a few yards behind the line, barreled in for the blow and sent Brady's legs back from where they had come. Both players got up without jawing as their teammates prepared for the extra point.
"That's the way the game should be played, physical," Patriots wide receiver Matthew Slater said. "This game is not a noncontact sport. So there's going to be hits. We knew that going into the game with those guys. They play physical football and we knew we had to match that going in.
"I didn't see it as a dirty hit at all."
Two plays earlier, on second-and-goal at the Ravens 1-yard line, Brady ran off left guard for what officials initially ruled a touchdown. But it was reversed when replays showed his knee hit the ground before the ball crossed the goal line. On the next play, the Ravens stopped BenJarvus Green-Ellis for no gain.
Trailing 20-16, the Patriots decided to go for a touchdown on fourth down. They got it on Brady's leap with 11:29 left in the game that the hard-hitting Lewis stopped — just a split-second late.
"I saw him get crunched," wide receiver Julian Edelman said. "I'm sure if it was reversed, TB would do the same. (They're) competitors. Whatever it takes to win that little play, that's what guys are going to do, especially in an AFC championship game."
Brady didn't complain.
"It's just the way the game was played," safety James Ihedigbo said. "It's two teams battling for the AFC championship. There's going to be those type of hits and it's all a part of the game. Tom understood that. Everyone on the field knew that. Once you stepped in between those white lines, that's the type of game that was being played."
Brady and Lewis had an earlier collision in the first two minutes of the third quarter, and that time, the intense leader of the three-time Super Bowl champs was angry.
On a second-and-one at the Baltimore 46, Brady carried around left tackle for a 4-yard gain. Lewis, who already had started toward him, landed lightly on his back.
Brady came up yelling. Lewis gave it back. But the confrontation was over in seconds.
"It was definitely a physical game," Edelman said. "That's what you expect when you play the Baltimore Ravens."
Green-Ellis felt that early in the second quarter when linebacker Dannell Ellerbe pulled his helmet off as he was running off right guard. As bodies landed around him, Green-Ellis finished with a 1-yard gain and no damage to his unprotected head.
"It's football," he said. "Guys are grabbing and scratching and clawing for anything they can get. That was the helmet. That was the part he got. I was able to get away from him. I wasn't really thinking about anything but moving forward."
It was clear to Ihedigbo from the start that there would be plenty of blows exchanged.
With so much at stake, the officials were letting two physical teams pound each other.
''Right off the bat, we knew it's one of those games where they were going to let us play and it was physical on both ends," Ihedigbo said. "It was really a heavyweight boxing match."
-- Howard Ulman
Gronkowski wearing boot on lower left leg
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is wearing a removable boot on his lower left leg after being injured in the AFC championship game.
Gronkowski wore the boot as he walked through the locker room and into the trainer's area on Monday. He did not speak with reporters.
The second-year star, who set an NFL record for a tight end with 17 touchdown catches, was hurt in the final minute of the third quarter of Sunday's 23-20 win when he was tackled after a 23-yard reception. He limped off the field but seemed to be walking better as he went to the locker room. Less than five minutes later, Gronkowski was back in the game.
He finished with five catches for 87 yards.
Overall
On Football: Not-so-special special teams can lose an NFL game
If it's true, as the saying goes, that "defense wins championships," the NFL's conference title games offered ample evidence that special teams can lose them.
"You're going to need special teams. A kick will win a game more often than a run or pass will win the game, and a special teams tackle can make a big difference," former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green said in a telephone interview Monday.
"There's nothing like it when it all works," added Green, now an NFL Network analyst. "And there's nothing worse when it doesn't work."
The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers found that out the hard way Sunday.
First, the Ravens wasted an easy opportunity to force overtime in the AFC championship game when Billy Cundiff pushed a 32-yard field-goal attempt wide left, letting the New England Patriots escape with a 23-20 victory.
Then, in a windy and rainy NFC championship game a few hours later, the 49ers handed the Giants the football and great field position in overtime when fill-in returner Kyle Williams fumbled a punt — his second turnover of the game on a return — and New York soon was celebrating its 20-17 victory on Lawrence Tynes' 31-yard kick.
"Those games were even. The teams were even. Baltimore was going to win with the run game and defense, and that was the way San Francisco was going to win, too. When you have that as your way to win, you have to have special teams play a role, because it means a low-scoring game," Green said. "Everyone always says you win with the three phases — offense, defense, special teams — but rarely do they mention special teams when it comes to what is the most significant thing."
After the Patriots and Giants set up their Super Bowl rematch, though, that was the main thing everyone wanted to talk about.
"This was a game of field position, a game of turnovers. We needed for special teams to help us, No. 1, with the field position aspect of it, but secondly, in contributing turnovers," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "And certainly we got two big ones."
Indeed.
Williams' first miscue, allowing the ball to bounce off the turf and scrape his right knee, gave New York the ball at San Francisco's 29 early in the fourth quarter and led to Eli Manning's 17-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham, putting the Giants ahead 17-14. On Monday, Williams said he didn't think the ball touched him.
The second error by Williams — the son of Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams and the subject of angry, and sometimes threatening, tweets after the game — set up the Giants at the 49ers' 24. On that play, he was stripped by New York's Jacquian Williams, a backup linebacker, while trying to shift the football from one hand to the other.
The Giants player who recovered both botched punts, Devin Thomas, is also hardly a household name. Thomas was drafted in the second round of the 2008 draft by the Washington Redskins, but he was released in October 2010, after being dogged by questions about his work ethic and route-running ability.
"My position as a fourth or fifth wide receiver and special teams player — I take pride in that and do anything to help this team win," Thomas said.
Describing the overtime play, Thomas recounted: "It was like, 'I can't believe he just fumbled.' Then I'm like, 'OK. I'm right here.' So I just made sure I secured it."
Special teams players sometimes are the last men on an NFL roster, young or fringe players who get their best chance to make an impact on the kicking units (although starting 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman made at least one particularly impressive tackle on punt coverage Sunday).
Kyle Williams, actually, was handling returns against the Giants because he replaced the injured Ted Ginn Jr.
"When you're out there, you want to make a play. You want to make a play for your team. We weren't exactly moving forward. It was one of those things where we needed something to spark us. I feel comfortable. I wouldn't go back and change it; 10 times out of 10, I wouldn't change it," San Francisco's Williams said. "It was one of those things where I was just trying to make something happen — and the other guy on the other team made something happen."
It must have been particularly galling for Ravens coach John Harbaugh to see his team flub a kick, given that part of his preparation for becoming an NFL coach was serving as a special teams assistant. He had a timeout left at the end Sunday, but didn't use it, and it appeared Baltimore might have been rushing just a bit before taking that missed kick.
Harbaugh — whose brother Jim coaches the 49ers — wasn't available to reporters Monday, but Cundiff was.
"It's tough to disappoint your teammates," the kicker said, "and it's tough to go out there and fail."
There were, to be sure, other reasons his team lost Sunday, including Lee Evans' drop of a pass in the end zone moments earlier. Plus, even if Cundiff did make that seemingly automatic kick, there still was overtime to be played, and who knows what would have happened then?
The 49ers, meanwhile, could point to plenty of other problems, including going 1 for 13 on third downs.
And let's not pretend the Patriots and Giants were absolutely perfect on special teams, either. New England's Danny Woodhead fumbled a kickoff return in the second half, leading to a field goal by Cundiff. The Giants, meanwhile, got pushed back 5 yards by a sloppy delay-of-game penalty before Tynes' game-ending kick.
"You can never take for granted the ability to hit a field goal at the end of a game," Green said. "Every now and then, you can have a disaster."
-- Howard Fendrich
Effort outfits Super Bowl volunteers with scarves
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A nationwide army of knitters, crocheters and weavers has created more than 13,000 blue-and-white scarves to help keep Super Bowl volunteers warm and highly visible when the big game comes to this cold-weather city.
Thousands of scarf-makers, from great-grandmothers to prison inmates, put in hours of work on the 6-foot-long scarves.
Super Bowl organizers hoped to get 8,000 scarves — one for each volunteer. They ended up with thousands more, sent from 45 states, as well as Belgium, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The designs vary widely, from simple blue-and-white stripes to intricately plotted Super Bowl themes.
The idea behind the Super Scarves program was to give the unpaid volunteers "a warm thank you" to keep them snug during the week leading up to the Feb. 5 game and make it easy for visitors to the city to identify someone who can give directions and other help, said host committee spokeswoman Dianna Boyce.
She said the scarves program was inspired by a similar effort staged a few years ago by the Special Olympics. Each scarf is adorned with an official Super Bowl host-city patch — all sewn on by inmates at the Indiana Women's Prison.
Bev Meska, an 82-year-old retired school secretary from Michigan City, Ind., was the most prolific of the more than 3,000 Super Bowl scarf-makers. She planned on crocheting only a few when she set to work in April 2010, after her daughter emailed her a link to the project website.
But Meska, who's been crocheting since age 16 and has made hundreds of afghans over the decades, ended up creating a staggering 250 scarves by November's deadline. She estimates she spent three to four hours on each one, using crocheting's single-hooked needle. Each of her scarves sports tasseled or fringed ends.
Every day, Meska said, she used her spare time to work on the scarves, often as she and her 12-year-old great-grandson, Ben Fore-Knight, watched sporting events, including NFL games. She said Ben kept encouraging her to make more. During the summers, she took her scarf work to nearby Lake Michigan.
"I crocheted everywhere — even down on the beach. I took my lawn chair and basket down there and worked away on them," she said.
Meanwhile, a group of inmates at a state prison in Indianapolis who call themselves the Naptown Knitters were learning how to knit, guided by prison volunteer Doreen Tatnall.
Tatnall, a real estate agent, didn't know how to knit either when she started. But she and 17 inmates at the 350-inmate Indianapolis Re-Entry Educational Facility, where inmates go as their release date nears, learned together by following YouTube instructional videos.
The men slowly picked up speed, creating more than two dozen scarves. Two prison staff members who knew how to knit gave them lessons during their twice-weekly, two-hour sessions.
"Once you get the hang of it, it's kind of calming. Some of the men said that for a couple of hours they forgot where they were," Tatnall said.
Steve Jordan, a 44-year-old from Kokomo who is due for release the day after the Super Bowl, made three scarves and said he would have made more if not for a prison rule forbidding inmates from taken their plastic knitting needles back to their cells.
Jordan, who is finishing out a murder sentence, said the courses were a nice break from the monotony of prison life.
"Here's a group of a guys sitting around knitting, something we normally don't have inside prison. No tension, everybody just sitting back and laughing. And knitting," he said.
Elsewhere, Belinda Martinez of St. Paul, Minn., knitted 46 scarves, some with elaborate Super Bowl or football designs. One captures in yarn the game's kickoff, showing a player's leg down to the shoe making contact with the ball.
Another pays homage to late "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, a Minnesota native, rendering in comic-strip style the moment when hapless Charlie Brown once again tries to kick a football held by Lucy, who once again snatches it away.
Martinez let her patriotism show in other scarves, including one that includes the first verse of the National Anthem on one side, and a traditional Scandinavian design on the other.
She also knit a striped, blue-and-white "Uni-Scarf" jumpsuit for the Indianapolis Colts' mascot, a horse named Blue, to promote the Super Scarves project.
Because many of her designs are complex, Martinez, 58, charts her work first on graph paper. She'd often knit while watching football and rooting for Midwestern teams.
"I've been teasing my two brothers for a long time that knitting goes with football, and now I have so much proof that I was right," she said.
-- Rick Callahan
