AIN’T AFRAID OF NO G.O.A.T
Aaron’s great, but Blue ‘D’ is up to task
Aaron Rodgers does not scare Landon Collins and the Giants’ defense. It’s not that they don’t respect Rodgers. Damon “Snacks” Harrison called him “one of the greats” on Friday. It’s just that as the rest of the NFL world bows to Rodgers and gives the Giants no chance in Sunday’s wild card game at Lambeau Field, Big Blue’s defense remains supremely confident and undeterred by the Packers’ point totals the last four weeks of 38, 30, 38 and 31.
“That’s how many points they put on the board?” Collins asked Friday, before delivering a comeback. “In Week 5 how many points did they put on the board?”
The Packers scored only 23 against the Giants, failing to score a touchdown in the second half.
“You’re a bold guy,” Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie joked at Collins, with a smile.
This Giants defense, this Giants secondary, is loose. Their swagger is at an all-time
high.
The secondary is embracing the NYPD nickname (New York Pass Defense) bestowed by Newsday beat writer Tom Rock. Some of New York’s Finest, in fact, delivered NYPD Football baseball caps and winter hats to the facility on Thursday. Collins received them from the police in person, and they were passed out Friday.
Harrison, a defensive tackle, stole one, but Snacks didn’t know the significance and felt left out when he heard it was an homage to the secondary. “Where the New York run defense at?” he said with a laugh.
Collins, who along with Harrison was named first-team All-Pro on Friday, embodies the defense’s attitude.
In a moment of candor after interviews, the second-year pro out of Alabama looked up and said of being named both a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro: “It’s crazy how everything is coming together like this.” His fierceness on the field comes out, though, when asked about his Week 5 fourth-quarter hit on Packers receiver Randall Cobb.
Cobb had caught a 13-yard pass near the right sideline on 3rd-and-10 while falling to the grass, with his back to Collins. Collins was approaching full speed trying to knock the ball out, since a first-down would end the game. So the strong safety lowered his right shoulder, connecting with the back of Cobb’s head and neck.
Cobb was quoted after the game saying he “got folded up like a lawn chair” and “thought I had died” when he saw 15 faces looking down on him as
he lay injured on the field. Packers coach Mike McCarthy went further, calling Collins’ hit “unnecessary.” Receiver Jordy Nelson also told ESPN: “You’d like, when a guy’s laying on the ground like that, (for Collins) to pull up. Obviously he didn’t.” Collins’ response to the Daily News to McCarthy’s criticism back in Week 6 was “it’s called playing football.” Friday, when asked if Collins’ hit will carry over and be on the players’ minds, he repeated that he does not regret trying to make a gamechanging play for his team.
“On the back of their mind?” Collins said. “It may be in the back of Cobb’s mind when he sees me come on his side or something like that. I think it’s only the person’s mind that it happened to. I remember the play, but I know when I see him I’m gonna think about the play, but at the same time if the opportunity comes again, I’m gonna do the same thing.”
Collins can talk this way because he has had an absolutely monster season, with a team-high 125 tackles, five interceptions and four sacks. He backs up his talk, in other words. The defense falls in line behind leaders like Collins and Harrison.
Another starter said of the defense’s chances against Rodgers: “I think we’ll be OK.”
They are 5-point underdogs on the road against the hottest quarterback in the NFL, but the Giants’
defense is not acting like it. Not at all.