Victor Cruz Says Patriots Don't Want To See Giants In SB. I Don't Think He's Wrong.

Via: profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/28/victor-cruz-patriots-dont-want-to-see-us-in-super-bowl/

We’re not even through with the regular season, but Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz has already given a thought to the final game of the season.

And if the Giants are in it, he the Patriots might not want to face them.

“They don’t want to see us,” Cruz said, via Seth Walder of the New York Daily News. “I’m sure if you ask them (they’d say) they’d play anybody, they don’t care. I’m sure they don’t want to see us. That’s for sure.”

Of course, this is the first time both teams have been in the playoffs since the Giants beat the Patriots five years ago, and that’s not the fault of the Patriots. And the Giants have the much tougher road to get to Houston, having to play one more game than the Patriots would since they didn’t win their division.

But the thoughts of a third Super Bowl between them was still something to fantasize about.

“Oh man, you can’t even put it into words almost,” Cruz said. “For it to be round three, us and them in another epic Super Bowl showdown. It’d be for all the marbles. The third time is when, I mean they’ll have a lot riding on it, we will have a lot riding on it. It’ll just be one of those moments you (couldn’t) forget.”
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Cruz gave the obligatory mention of not really caring which team the Giants were playing if they could get to Super Bowl LI, but it’s clear that before they face their first NFC opponent, the final game is already on his mind.

 
First off Victor Cruz and his 1 touchdown this season should not be starting shit. He is nowhere close to the player he was in 2011 when the awful 9-7 G-Men got hot thanks to him and won a Super Bowl. As Coach Belichick says "ignore the noise" well here Cruz sure is making a lot of it.

While the Giants have had a nice year they are going to be the 5 seed in the NFC so if they are going to make it to Super Bowl LI it is going to be a long tough road to Houston as they'll play every game away from Metlife Stadium. However the Giants have done it before, in both of their Super Bowl runs under Eli Manning they've had to win multiple road playoff games on their way to championships.


That is what leads me to Cruz' comment in reference to potentially playing the Patriots in the Super Bowl ​“They don’t want to see us,” “I’m sure if you ask them (they’d say) they’d play anybody, they don’t care. I’m sure they don’t want to see us. That’s for sure.”



He's not wrong. As a Patriots fan I do not want to play the Giants in the Super Bowl despite thinking the 2016 Patriots are a much better team than the 2016 Giants.

The New York Giants have had one of the weirdest runs in all of sports. Since 2007 (excluding however their playoff run ends this season) they've made the playoffs only three times (2007, 2008, 2011) but during two of those three times they won the Super Bowl. They basically either don't make the playoffs or win the whole thing.

Plus both times they won they upset Patriot teams with superior records. 16-0 vs. 10-6 in 2007 and 13-3 vs. 9-7 in 2011. Both times the Patriots had better teams yet because of their style of play (and luck) they've won two Super Bowls over the class of the NFL the last 15 years, the New England Patriots.

Two hot months of football over the last decade have made up for years of ineptitude and mediocrity and has somehow convinced people that Eli Manning should be a Hall of Fame QB. But credit to the Giants, they made they plays and won Super Bowls. They made the luckiest play in Super Bowl history. More power to them.

The Patriots on the other hand have been a perennial Super Bowl contender over 15 seasons and have been easily the most successful organization in the NFL if not all of sports, yet the Giants have the Trump Card of being able to say they've been them twice in the Super Bowl. Nobody would ever argue that the Giants have had a better run since the new millenium but they can always make the claim.

Should they play the Patriots again in the Super Bowl and godforebid win it, it would move the Giants to 3-0 against Brady and Belichick in the Super Bowl and drop their record to 4-3 with all 3 losses coming to the G-men. Instead of Tom Brady being remembered as the greatest QB of all time he's remembered as being 0-3 in the Super Bowl against this guy.

As a Patriots fan I cannot have it. I don't need to get chirped at by loser Giants fans for the rest of my life that the most inconsistent team ever somehow beat us 3 times in the Super Bowl. Even with 2 Super Bowl losses to them we still have 4 as a franchise and make it to the AFC championship every year when they're busy going 6-10. We're better. I'd rather be a Patriots fan any day of the week. But one more ring for them, especially against us totally shifts the axis of power. It almost wipes out all the success of this Brady-Belichick regime.

Bill Belichick doesn't need that either. The man behind the famous Giant defenses of the 80's and early 90's goes down as the genius future HOF coach that was unable to beat his former team in the Super Bowl. It just is a horrible situation that could happen.

While it would be awesome to get some revenge against the team who ruined your chance at being 19-0 and the best team off all time and also the magical "do it for Myra" 2011 season, the possibility of falling to 0-3 against the Giants is terrifying. Believe me that would be the perfect scenario for this season to end. Beating the Giants in the Super Bowl. But I don't think I could handle it the other way around. If the New York Giants entire coaching staff and roster played in a different uniform I would not be scared of them. Their offense is a one man show and while their defense is vastly improved it does not scare me. The laundry does. There's just something about the Giants that does bad things to the Patriots, and while I'm not worried about this team I'm worried about what this team potentially represents. 

So in a weird way I think Victor Cruz is right, at least when it comes to fans. Players I don't think it's the same. Basically everybody from 2011 is gone except for Brady and Belichick its almost an entirely different team since the last time they played. Julian Edelman was here but he was playing more CB than WR at the time. But when it comes to legacy I know I am scared of playing the Giants again and I'm sure there has to be at least one person inside 1 Patriot Place either a coach, player or front office person who feels the same way as I do.