Follow Us:

[BigBlueBruiser]

Take it from another Giants coach who has gone into San Francisco for the NFC Championship Game and come away with a ticket to the Super Bowl: This Giants team has every reason to believe it can make the cross-country journey and earn a future trip to Indianapolis by beating the 49ers in a rematch of the conference title game from the 1990-91 season. "I think they have a real shot," two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells told Newsday yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in Jupiter, Fla. "They've got a good quarterback , they're an adept passing team, and they can knock the quarterback down. Now, they have a couple of holes, but so does everybody. They've been improving a great deal in recent weeks." Parcells works these days as an ESPN analyst, but make no mistake: He's bleeding Giants' blue for this one. "Who do you think I'm rooting for, the 49ers?" he said. "I couldn't root for the 49ers if they're playing the Giants, can I? Too much blood." After watching the Giants dispatch the Falcons, 24-2, in the wild-card round and then the Packers, 37-20, in Sunday's divisional playoffs, Parcells thinks the Giants have what it takes to duplicate his own NFC Championship Game win over the 49ers. Parcells achieved an unlikely 15-13 win over the 49ers at Candlestick Park as backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler outperformed two-time defending Super Bowl champion quarterback Joe Montana in one of the Giants' greatest playoff upsets ever. "I knew we had a shot because we had a good team," Parcells said. "It wasn't glamorous, but we could do things well. We could run it, play defense and play in close games. Our players wouldn't crack mentally. That was a very underrated team." Parcells said the Giants' fighting spirit has carried them a long way in these playoffs and thinks it can carry them at least another week for a chance at a fourth Super Bowl title. "The Giants are tough mentally, but that's what it's supposed to be about," he said. "I think they've had that over the years. I think it's kind of inbred. Players wind up hearing about it. I think it helps them."

Source: Newsday