Where do the New York Giants‘ Super Bowl XLII and XLVI teams rank among the 25 teams that have won the big game since 2000?
24th and 25th, that’s where. In a recent listing from Bleacher Report, the Giants’ two upset victories over Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots don’t measure up to the rest of this centuries’ other NFL championships.
25. 2011 New York Giants
Pros: Behind a legendary pass rush, they dethroned the Patriots for the second time in a four-year span.
Cons: They are the only team on this list with just nine regular-season wins and a negative scoring margin (minus-6). Despite that pass rush, only the 2018 Patriots gave up more yards per play (5.62), and Jason Pierre-Paul was their only first-team All-Pro.
24. 2007 New York Giants
Pros: They slayed the then-18-0 Patriots in one of the biggest upsets in NFL history.
Cons: They were only one win better than the 2011 team at 10-6, and their plus-22 regular-season scoring margin ranks second-last among the 25 teams on this list. They were also a horrendous 1-5 against teams with winning records, and they outscored their four playoff opponents by just 20 total points. They had just one Pro Bowler (Osi Umenyiora) and no first-team All-Pros.
It’s hard to argue with some of the cons here. The Giants were not dominant in the regular season in either year, making the Super Bowl behind two incredible postseason runs.
But…they played just one of those eight postseason games at home, which was omitted from these rankings. Among the victories were wins in Dallas, Green Bay and San Francisco. No cred for any of those?