Giants Daily Notebook

With a 9-5 record, the Giants control their own destiny in the postseason race. But to close the deal they’re going to have to win away from home. Their final two games are Sunday in Green Bay and next week in Washington . A victory over the equally-motivated 8-6 Packers in Lambeau Field will put the Giants in the playoffs for the fifth time in six years.

So how do they get it done?

“You stress the road warrior mentality,” Coach Tom Coughlin said, “and the idea that we have been able to come together as a team and really depend and rely on each other for strength and support and confidence as we go to play on the road in a difficult place to play.”

The Giants have been one of the NFL’s best road teams under Coughlin. A huge factor in winning a championship in 2007 was their ability to play well in hostile venues. That year, the Giants set an NFL single-season record with 11 consecutive victories away from home (seven regular season, four postseason, including Super Bowl XLII). Since the start of the 2007 season, the Giants have the NFL’s third-best record in regular season road games at 20-10, trailing only Indianapolis (23-8) and New England (21-10). They have played well on the road late in the season. Beginning in 2005 – the first year they made the playoffs under Coughlin – the Giants are 9-4 in regular season road games in December and January.

Why do the Giants play so well on the road?

“There are a couple things that of jump out at me,” said offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, who has coached in the NFL since 1989. “One is they genuinely like each other. When you’re going into, for lack of a better word, a hostile environment, the fact that you feel good about the people around you and don’t feel like there is a need to have anybody else to be there in order for you to have a chance to win is a good starting point. Then, I think there is some mental toughness and I have great respect for our guys in that sense. They were able to weather the storm fairly well. The teams that do that seem to be the ones that go out and can handle the vicissitudes of the season, the ups and downs, and handle the changing venue. Whether it’s home with your home crowd, or when you’re away and the visiting crowd. For the most part, they’re able to block that out and focus in.

“I think there’s a realization, I preach it all the time, the fans aren’t going to win or lose the game for us and the media isn’t going to win or lose the game for us, it’s us. I think there is some maturity, some character, some toughness, and the fact that they believe in each other for the most part serves us pretty well.”

“We always like playing on the road because we know there’s no mystery of who’s on your side there,” running back Brandon Jacobs said. “We’ve always done well on the road. We win as a team and lose as a team, no matter where it is. We have a tough team in front of us on Sunday that’s playing for the same thing and we have to go get it.”

“This team has to make its own way,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “We’ve had a relatively successful year on the road this year, and it’s just a ‘you against the world’ type of bonding experience. The last road trip we were on (which took the team to Kansas City and Detroit instead of the scheduled destination, Minneapolis ) was obviously a very interesting one, and I think we grew a lot as a team on that trip. So it’s just fun. It’s fun to quiet a crowd, and it’s a great opportunity to go up to a legendary setting, a legendary field and have a great win.”

One of the their most famous road victories in recent seasons was earned in the place where they must win this week, fabled Lambeau, the site of their epic 23-20 overtime victory in minus-23 degree wind chill in the 2007 NFC Championship Game. Twenty Giants who played in that game are on the current roster, including eight members of the starting offense (the five-man line, Eli Manning, Kevin Boss and Jacobs).

Although their focus is on the upcoming game, it is impossible for the Giants who played on that team not to recall their last visit to Green Bay .

“You just remember the fond memories,” Cofield said. “You remember the success you had and the feeling and you try and build off of that. You just know that you can go up there and win against a good Green Bay team, and that’s what we did at that point.”

“It helps because we know what it takes to win there,” guard Chris Snee said. “This is a playoff game, and obviously that was, too. Yeah, we have guys who can take a leadership role and show the way.”

The Packers also have 21 players on their current roster who were in uniform that night, including quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who stayed on the sideline because Brett Favre played the entire game.

“I remember I was about as miserable as far as the cold as I’ve ever been,” Rodgers said. “It was definitely a game that when you’re not playing it was probably that much more cold on the sidelines. I remember the excitement of being right in the game, of being one quarter away from the Super Bowl and going into overtime and unfortunately not coming up with the victory there. One thing I do remember though is that the first person I saw as I went on the field was Jeff Feagles. I had known Jeff for a couple of years, and he was crying. I think it was his 20th year at that point and going to the Super Bowl for the first time. I remember the joy on his face and thinking about how badly I wished we had been the ones to come up with a victory that day.”