Super Bowl rematch? Really, in name only

"The past is never dead," William Faulkner wrote in "Requiem for a Nun." "It is not even past."

For the next two weeks at least, the New England Patriots aren't fans of Faulkner.

They are prepared for the questions, no doubt, about what happened in Glendale, Ariz., four years ago, when the New York Giants upset New England's quest for a fourth Super Bowl title and a 19-0 season. But the Patriots are showing how irrelevant they find those questions.

"You think about it, there's what, five players on the Giants that are still there and four or five Patriots still there?" safety James Ihedigbo said. "It's a completely different game."

Ihedigbo's math is a little off, as there are eight Patriots and 16 Giants remaining from the teams' respective 2007 rosters. Those numbers include New England center Dan Koppen and New York wide receiver Domenik Hixon, both on injured reserve, and New York linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka, who missed Super Bowl XLII with a broken leg.

Thus, only 21 of the 90 players who suit up on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis will have been on the field four years ago.

While Tom Brady and Eli Manning headline that list, the teams themselves have seen their offensive philosophies alter and evolve over the past four seasons. The Patriots no longer rely on a deep passing game fueled by Randy Moss and a wise, veteran defense. This iteration of Brady and Company spreads defenses out and attacks them in the middle with tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski.

The Giants, for their part, are far less run-oriented an offense this time around, receiving more from big-play wide receivers. New York doesn't have a single wide receiver from the 2007 team on the 2011 roster, with Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham taking the places of Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer and, yes, David Tyree.

In the three games leading up to Super Bowl XLII, Manning threw for 599 yards and four touchdowns. In three playoff games this season, he's thrown for 923 yards and eight TDs.

So while NFL Network may revel in replaying that game over this next fortnight, it isn't like the Patriots will be taking copious notes.

The Patriots will, on the other hand, be looking a bit more closely at their loss to the Giants in November -- their last loss, in fact. That game, like the Super Bowl, featured frenzied scoring in the fourth quarter, capped off by an Eli Manning touchdown pass.

"We'll certainly look at that game, several times. You see matchups," said Brady. "You see how your guys match up against their guys -- route-running and blocking and so forth. It will have absolutely zero impact on the game, but at the same time, hopefully we can learn some lessons from that game."

Even so, the Patriots probably can't glean as much from that game as they could under typical circumstances. It isn't just a cliche to say the Giants are a different team now; it's a truth, since Nicks and Ahmad Bradshaw -- two of New York's biggest weapons -- missed that trip to Foxboro. The Giants had yet to shuffle their offensive line, and the Pats had yet to lose Andre Carter for the season.

"It's tough to draw off the earlier game," said Ihedigbo. "You really just have to watch film on the level that they're playing at now. They're playing at a high level, and so are we. It's going to be a battle."

Of course, while revenge may not be a stated objective, it isn't like the Patriots would mind if they exacted it anyway. And the latter stages of this season and especially this postseason have set up well for the vengeance-minded.

Under the direction of Belichick and Brady, New England has lost five playoff games. The Patriots earned some payback during the season for past playoff losses with victories against the Jets and Colts. Their first two postseason victories also avenged past playoff losses, coming against Denver and Baltimore.

The Giants, then, remain the lone fly in the ointment.

Stephen Gostkowski, though, doesn't attach special significance to it.

"We are going to have to beat a good team to win, and we're going to have to play our best to win," said the kicker. "Whoever we beat, if we win, we call ourselves champions. It doesn't really matter."

(Contact Tim Britton at tbritton(at)providencejournal.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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