There’s nothing a coach likes better than telling his players they’re impossible underdogs.
It’s harder to sell when you’re the defending Super Bowl champions, but Giants coach Tom Coughlin is sell it anyway.
Because the 49ers are on a bit of a roll, and because they’re six-point favorites at home for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game rematch, Coughlin said he could “sense” that people thought the 49ers are the best team in the NFC.
“Nobody gives us a chance to win,” Coughlin said, apparently with a straight face, via Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News. “We’ll see.”
Coughlin’s been singing a familiar song all summer, reminding his players that other teams were getting picked to win the NFC East while his team was picking out rings.
“I may take the occasion to remind them,” he said of his players.
Yeah, maybe once or twice this week.
Asked why he thought so many were picking against his team, Coughlin had no answers.
“I’m not going there,” he said. “Sorry. I don’t have an answer for that. Why do I think they feel that way? Probably because they think the other team is playing very well.”
The 49ers have won their last two games by a combined score of 79-3, and they have a 651-yard margin in those two games (1,000-349).
Nevertheless, the Giants are the Giants, you know, winners of two of the last four Super Bowls. Maybe somewhere, someone in the world gives them the slightest chance.