You heard a lot of consternation coming from the Giants over the summer about the way the Jets were swaggering around town like the biggest thing to ever happen to the game of football.
They sniffed about how they'd never go on "Hard Knocks," made a lot of not-so-subtle references to doing things the right way and generally acted like the members of Bushwood Country Club on the day that the caddies were allowed to use the pool.
What a difference a month makes, because the Giants suddenly sound exactly like the guys they were so disgusted by back in August.
The reason for their newfound swagger is the 17-3 victory against the Bears on Sunday night. Less than a week after they were pleading with the world to not jump to conclusions about them based on two bad performances, they are talking about that win as if the messiah has come down from on high and revealed the great secrets of the universe. Or, more specifically, as if another Super Bowl title is in the offing.
"It's starting to remind me of '07," said Justin Tuck. "We got off to that 0-2 start and then we won a huge game in Washington, I think we ran off five or six in a row after that. Will that happen this year? I don't know. But I'm encouraged by the fact of I'm starting to see similarities to it."
"I see us on the rise," said David Diehl.
Those with a little longer memory than Tuck will remember that few people started having any big ideas about that 2007 team until after they pushed the Patriots to the brink in the final week of that season. Heck, before they beat the Bills the week before it was easy to find speculation about Tom Coughlin's future. They certainly didn't start suggesting anything was in the offing after one win against a team that was just as offensively challenged as the one the Giants beat on Sunday night.
The object lesson here is the oft-repeated but rarely remembered one of not allowing yourself to get too high or too low based on any one result. We just went through two weeks where people were questioning every single thing about the Giants and now there are people talking about Super Bowls?
Let's at least wait and see what happens against the Texans before we start booking passage for Dallas, OK? After all, if the Giants lose we'll be too busy burning Coughlin in effigy again to worry about February travel plans.
U.S. & World
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
