The Green Bay Packers did not lose a single home game on their way to a 15-1 regular season. The New York Giants have not played away from MetLife Stadium since Week 14.
But if the Giants are going to advance to the NFC Championship next week, they will have to do it as the Packers advanced to the Super Bowl last season: on the road.
"Road warriors, coming out of the woodwork.," said Giants coach Tom Coughlin during a press conference on Wednesday. "It is time to go out the road. It is time to renew some of those thoughts about playing on the road, the togetherness, the team being all for one and one for all, the mental toughness. You are going to need all those things there."
There are certainly X's and O's that will affect New York's chances against Green Bay. They would like to pressure Aaron Rodgers and take him out of the comfort zone he's danced in all season long. They would like to control time of possession, keeping Green Bay's high-octane offense off the field. They would like their secondary to play like it has in recent weeks, rather than with a sense of confusion that impacted the defense during some of their losses.
But Coughlin knows there are other elements to playoff success, too.
"Persistence - number one - and the ability to ride the ups and the downs and stay together. The development of the feeling of ‘team.' The confidence that grows from a little bit of success. The ability to put some of the pieces to the puzzle together that haven't been there, that weren't there, that do breed the confidence," he said, later adding, "But the number one thing, you have to stay the course. Even when it doesn't look very good you have to hang in there and you have to battle. You have to believe in yourself and you have to really believe that from the competitive aspect of that, things are going to get better."
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