Antrell Rolle reveals how the 2011 Giants shocked the Patriots for a second time
The Giants rode a 9-7 regular-season record all the way to a Super Bowl title
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7 min read
A 9-7 team is fortunate to make the playoffs -- a Super Bowl title is pretty much out of the question. But there was something different, something special, about the 2011 New York Giants.
The team started off the season 6-2, capped by a huge road win over the Patriots. But after that, things started to unravel. The Giants dropped four straight games to fall to 6-6, and were on the verge of missing the playoffs altogether.
"I believe it was more about the players and the coaches being on the same page at the same time," said Antrel Rolle, a safety for the 2011 Giants. "Once we became selfless players as well as selfless coaches, I think that's when things started to click with us more."
The team bounced back, winning three of four games to end the season, including a loser-goes-home showdown with the Cowboys for the NFC East title in the last game of the regular season. In that game the Giants got three touchdown passes from Eli Manning, who was in the midst of a career year, and moved on to the playoffs with a 9-7 record.
"I earned a newfound respect for Eli," Rolle said. "I've never seen a quarterback that'd get so many beatings and get up and play with more fire than he had the previous play. Eli is just a competitor. He knows how to win at each and every level. Going down the stretch, I wouldn't have any other quarterback but Eli."
Manning threw for nearly 5,000 yards in 2011 to go along with 29 touchdown passes. His favorite target was Victor Cruz, who caught 82 passes for 1,536 yards and nine touchdowns in his first full season in the NFL.
"Going up against [Cruz] every day, you knew how special he was, but you never know how it's going to translate come Sunday," Rolle said. "He was every bit as advertised -- and then some. He was a phenomenal talent and an even better person. Whenever there was a big play that needed to be made, Victor Cruz was there to make that play.
"Would we have been on that Super Bowl run if it wasn't for Victor? I don't think so."
The air attack was aided by the outstanding running back duo of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, who combined for 1,230 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground.
"What made those guys so special is that they were two peas in a pod," Rolle said. "We'd make fun of them saying they were like the movie 'Twins,' you know -- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito? They were inseparable, but at the same time they brought two totally different talents to the table."
Leading the charge was head coach Tom Coughlin, who had coached the Giants to the biggest upset in Super Bowl history just a few seasons prior when they beat the undefeated Patriots.
"He was an extreme leader ... it's either his way or the highway," Rolle said of Coughlin. "He's a tough guy. He's very, very precise in his plan and his demeanor and his approach."
The defense, led by defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, was strong all season long thanks to its depth and prowess at nearly every position.
"You can't name just one guy," Rolle said. "Because you sit there and you think about certain things that took place throughout the course of that season and throughout the postseason -- I can pinpoint each and every guy on our defense, even guys coming off the bench.
"To be honest, I give most of the credit to our scout team guys -- those guys were phenomenal. They made the game so easy for us come Sunday because they worked so hard for us throughout the course of the week."
Heading into the playoffs, Rolle says the players still didn't realize how good the team was capable of being.
"We didn't know how good we were," he said. "It was a point in time when we needed all men on deck. I took a lot heat for calling guys out -- calling my teammates out, calling myself out. ... But I didn't care, because I knew what it would take in order for us to even have a fighting chance."
As the team got healthy, practices got better and the team was fighting hard leading into the postseason. After victories in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Giants faced a tough challenge in the NFC title game. The game went back and forth and headed to overtime, when Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31-yard game-winning field goal to send the Giants to the Super Bowl.
In a fitting twist of fate, the G-Men would once again meet the New England Patriots -- anything but just another game.
"For me it was something special," Rolle said. "I consider Tom Brady the best quarterback I ever faced -- probably the best to ever play the game, arguably. That game had so much meaning and so much intensity that it was almost overwhelming at some points. ... Going up against the Patriots -- there's nothing like it."
In a see-saw game, the Giants got off to a 9-0 lead before the Patriots rattled off 17 straight points, taking an eight-point lead midway through the third quarter. Two Tynes field goals brought the Giants closer, which set up late-game heroics from the New York offense.
Trailing 17-15 with four minutes left in the game and starting from their own 12-yard line, Manning and the Giants engineered a drive that will go down in Giants history. Manning hit a streaking Mario Manningham down the sideline, and he was able to barely keep both feet in bounds for a 38-yard play to get things going. Later in the drive, Manning hit Hakeem Nicks to get the ball into the red zone with just under two minutes to play, and another Manning-Nicks connection set up a first-and-goal with just over a minute left.
With the Giants already well within field goal range and time ticking off the clock, the Patriots decided to let the Giants score. Bradshaw rushed up the middle untouched and, realizing there was no Patriots defender near him, he tried to stop himself before the end zone. But his momentum carried him in, leaving Tom Brady and the Patriots 58 seconds to close the Giants' 21-17 lead.
"We were locked and loaded at that point," Rolle said. "We were going to do whatever we needed to do to be successful. ... It didn't matter whether Ahmad scored or not -- we were ready."
Brady got the Patriots to midfield, but with time running down he was forced to throw a Hail Mary to end the game, one way or another.
"He was able to get in range to throw a Hail Mary, which honestly made my legs weak," Rolle said. "I can still feel my legs buckling to this day. ... At that point in time you just have to rely on your assignment, your technique ... and God, obviously."
Brady escaped some pass rushers, reared back and hurled the ball into the end zone, where it was tipped into the air. A diving Rob Gronkowski nearly came up with the ball before it hit the ground, but Rolle came out of nowhere to tackle him.
"It was all instinct. For three seconds of that play, I'm a spectator looking at the ball -- you kind of lose yourself," Rolle said. "I snapped out of it and thought, 'Just run, create havoc.' I saw the tipped ball and I saw Gronkowski there. I just could not live with myself if he caught that ball. So I just ran, and whether he caught it or not I was going to try to kick, scratch, claw -- it didn't matter what, I was going to try to do something to make sure he didn't come down with that ball."
The ball hit the ground and the clock struck zero -- the Giants were once again Super Bowl champions.
"The Super Bowl in itself was one of the best feelings I've ever had, but I think the journey itself to get there was the best experience I've ever had," Rolle said. "It took a lot for us to get there."
The 2011 Giants still hold the distinction of being the team with the lowest regular-season winning percentage to ever win a Super Bowl.
"I didn't feel that we were that good of a team to reach the Super Bowl, and I'm pretty sure a lot of my teammates pretty much feel the same way," Rolle said. "We fought and believed in one another. Every man put down their own selfish needs and played team ball and, once we got to that point, the rest was history."
