PRIME FOCUS IS NOW ON PANTHERS, NOTHING ELSE


by Steve Serby




Email
</efriend/efriend_gv.htm?headline=PRIME%20FOCUS%20IS%20NOW%20ON%20PANTHERS,%20NO\
THING%20ELSE&byline=%09%09%09%09%09By%20STEVE%20SERBY%09%09%09%09%09&url=http://\
www.nypost.com/sports/giants/59796.htm>
Archives <http://pqarchiver.nypost.com/nypost/>
Print <javascript:pfriendly.submit();>
Reprint </reprints/reprints.htm>




/January 2, 2006/ -- ALL that matters now for the Giants is this next
game, against the Panthers, this next season, starting Sunday at Giants
Stadium. The NFC East championship does not matter. Tiki Barber's three
200-yard rushing games do not matter. Eli Manning's fourth-quarter
comebacks and subsequent growing pains do not matter. Michael Strahan's
comeback season does not matter. Osi Umenyiora's breakout season does
not matter.

All the injuries at linebacker, all the holes in the secondary do not
matter. The road woes do not matter. The false starts do not matter. The
psychoanalysis of Jay Feely does not matter.

Maybe only a dreamer can envision Tom Coughlin, the Coach of Record of
the Team of Record, holding the Lombardi Trophy high over his head on
the first Sunday night of February, then handing it through the tears to
John Mara, or one of the Tisch boys, unless you are dreaming about next
year, and that does not matter either.

Because all that matters right now is what the 2005 Giants believe about
what they can accomplish at the beginning of 2006, and guess what: they
believe.

"Why not us?" Tiki Barber says.

Everybody talks about what the Giants don't have. The Giants prefer to
talk about what they do have; they have five Pro Bowl players. They have
a resiliency, an esprit de corps, a fighting spirit exemplified by
Strahan getting poked in the eye and returning to battle later in the
fourth quarter once the bleeding stopped. They have Jeremy Shockey
(ankle) back. They have their 12th Man one more time against Jake
Delhomme and Steve Smith and DeShaun Foster and John Fox, Jim Fassel's
former defensive coordinator.

"I think we can beat anybody in the NFC," Umenyiora said.


The fact that the Giants had to go life-and-death with the Charaiders
does not matter. The fact that Eli completed only six passes to
teammates not named Tiki does not matter. The fact that Eli has lost
much of his downfield chemistry with Plaxico Burress does not matter.

The fact that Eli is more of a game manager than playmaker does not
matter. The fact that Corey Webster looked as if he wanted to ask Randy
Moss for his autograph does not matter.

What matters is the Panthers.

"Now you see what you really got once you get to the playoffs," Eli said.

They got a coach who has been to two AFC championship games, in a
conference where three other head coaches - Joe Gibbs, Mike Holmgren and
Jon Gruden - have won the Super Bowl - and another - Fox - has lost a
Super Bowl.

They got Feely back on track. They got special teams and a kicking game
- Jeff Feagles, David Tyree and Chad Morton - that can make a difference.

"Now we have a whole new season, this is where it all counts," Eli said.
"Every play's a big one."

The fact that Gibbs has won three Super Bowls with three different
quarterbacks does not matter. The fact that Bill Parcells considers
Smith one of the 10 best players in the NFL does not matter. The fact
that the No. 1-seeded Seahawks survived the Giants in overtime when
Feely missed three field goals does not matter.

What matters is this next game in this next season.

"We have the talent to play with anyone in this league," Barber said.

The Giants are by no means the best team. But the best team in January
doesn't always win. Sometimes it is the team that plays the best in
January that wins. Just because I say it looks like 'Wait Till Next
Year' doesn't mean the Giants have to say it. Because no one - not the
Seahawks, not the Bears, not the Panthers - scares them.

"We're solid on both sides of the football," Umenyiora said. "Any given
day we can beat anybody."

Longtime Giants security enforcer Mike Murphy was standing outside the
visitors' locker room Saturday night as the NFC East champs filed in one
by one.

Murphy looked inside and held up three fingers and said: "Three more."

Bring on the Panthers first.

steve.serby@...

zvika

Zvi Shilon,
Nahal Hayarkon 8/4,
Modiin, 71700,
Israel
972-8- 970-0381
972-54-879387
Fax #: 001-832-213-4057
zvika6@...



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]