Last week, the Green Bay Packers demolished the Seattle Seahawks in convincing fashion. The frozen tundra of Lambeau was just that, and now the Pack are hosting the NFC Championship game. The New York football Giants allowed Marion Barber to rush for over one hundred twenty yards and a touchdown, but were able to overcome that and upset the Dallas Cowboys. For the Giants, "well-dressed" Amani Toomer has been playing lights out, and has certainly picked up the slack since the loss of TE Jeremey Shockey and the gimpy Plaxico Buress. He has caught a team high eleven playoff passes for three touchdowns and 154 yards. The defense has been solid, getting to the quarterback and playing well in the secondary despite injuries to Sam Madison and Aaron Ross (Ross will be back this week). Eli Manning has clearly turned the corner in his career and has solidified himself as the QB for the Giants after facing some harsh criticism early in the year. The question for this game will be, how much will the weather effect the play of both teams? Unfortunately, for the Giants the colder the temperature has been, the worse Eli's quarterback rating became. On the plus side, Brandon Jacobs is a big bruising runner who defenders don't like to tackle in warm weather, in the cold the hits hurt twice as much.
The temperature for the game will be around four degrees. Coincidentally, number four for the Packers is a living legend, and NFL icon Brett Favre. When the temperature goes down, the Mississippi native gets hot. When playing in Green Bay and the temperature is under 34 degrees, Favre has an astonishing record of 43-5. Even better for the Packers, they just played in a blizzard last week and RB Ryan Grant ran for over 200 yards despite fumbling twice in the early goings of the game. The Packers have one of the NFL's best receiving core featuring WRs Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, James Jones, and talented but troubled Koren Robinson. The Green Bay offense is explosive, no doubt. However it is the defense that has truly gotten the Packers to this point. They have an outstanding young linebacking core, a d-line that can stop the run and get to the quarterback, and a secondary that shuts you out, and forces turnovers. Cornerbacks Al Harris and Charles Woodson are pro bowlern type players, but the secondary has received an unexpected boost from former Central Florida Safety Atari Bigsby. He flies all over the field and is a fundamentally sound player who does not make many mistakes. All of these factors will add up to a victory for Green Bay, 23-17.
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