green bay packers  VS   new york giants

Green Bay Packers, legendary quarterback, 38 year old, Brett Favre was thinking about retiring from his long, prolific career a year ago.  Today he is on the verge of a Super Bowl appearance.

On Sunday, for the first time in 11 years, Favre and the Green Bay Packers will attempt to capture the conference title. The Green Bay Packers have enjoyed a quick and remarkable 2 year turn-around, under head coach Mike McCarthy. The New York Giants have had a turbulent and disappointing 2007, especially with the off season retirement of star running back Tiki Barber.

Green Bay's come-back has largely been due to Brett Favre's bounce-back season.  He has thrown 4,155 yards and completed a career best 66.5% of his passes. Favre, a future Hall of Famer, has a great supporting cast with newbie running back, Ryan Grant,  ex New York Giants, who mid-season became a starter and came through with a huge performance in last weekend's 42-20 victory over Seattle in the playoffs. Grant was traded by the New York Giants to the Green Bay Packers in a sixth round draft choice on September 1.

This will be the Giants first NFC title game since 2000. They have a league-best for 53 sacks during the regular season and the outstanding recent play by quarterback, Eli Manning. Manning has thrown 8 touchdown passes and only 1 interception over his last 3 games and has not commited a turnover so far in this playoff season.  The New York Giants have had great success on the road and in frigid temperatures. They have not lost an away game since the 45-35 setback with the Cowboys during the 2007 season opener.

The Green Bay Packers' ability to run the football should result in New York's intimidating pass rush being less of a factor than it has in recent weeks. The New York Giants will also have problems with the Packers' impressive depth at receiver, especially with a secondary line-up riddled with injuries. The Green Bay Packers have scored 30 or more points in 8 of their last 10 games vs. the Giants trying to limit their mistakes and keep the score down. It would seem with high scoring vs. low scoring the Greenbay Packers are going to come out on top.