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February 4, 2008

Tuck's Two Sacks

"It just feels great," Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck, who had two of New York's five sacks, said of the pressure he and his teammates put on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady throughout Super Bowl XLII.

"It was a complete effort," he said. "Everybody was getting after it. It was just a great collective win. We knew the focus for us to win was to get a lot of heat on him early and often. I feel we succeeded in that."

"We felt like we could do that," said Michael Strahan, who also had a sack of Brady. "We done that all year. We led the league in sacks (with 53) and, supposedly, when we get against the Patriots, we're not supposed to be able to pass rush?

"That's what we do," Strahan said. "We spot the run, as well. We felt like we could do it from the beginning, and did not listen to anyone who said we couldn't."

They certainly did, holding the Patriots -- who averaged 38 points a game during the regular season while scoring a league-record, 589 points -- to a season-low 14 points.

"That offense," Tuck said, "is made to stay in rhythm, and some things we showed him up front and in the secondary, you could tell it kind of threw him off rhythm. He made some errant throw and held the ball a little longer than he normally does. That's the result of a combination of pressure in his face, and the secondary doing a great job locking down all of the receivers."

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 12:38 AM | Permalink