Can the league's most fearsome defensive front knock Tom Brady off his game? NFL perfection hangs in the balance

Brady will draw from his extensive bag of tricks to deal with the threat from Umenyiora and the rest of Big Blue's baddies. John Biever/SI

In the Super Bowl XLII matchup between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, there is one overriding truth: Patriots quarterback Tom Brady must go down, and he must go down hard.

"Pressure, pressure, pressure," says Super Bowl XXIII QB Boomer Esiason, now a CBS analyst. "The Giants have to pressure Tom Brady to have a chance to win."

"Without a doubt," says Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, "how much pressure we put on Brady will be the biggest factor." Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan concurs: "How the Giants handle Brady is the whole game."

So we go to the videotape -- actually a DVD of the coaches' tape -- from the game that offers the best clues as to whether New York can rattle Mr. Perfect enough to end New England's march to 19-0 and football history.

For the Giants, the news is not encouraging.

Rarely has a defeat been as uplifting as New York's 38-35 Week 17 loss to the Patriots. With nothing at stake in the standings, the Giants played so gallantly that night in the Meadowlands that NBC analyst John Madden later called coach Tom Coughlin and told him, "What you did was great for your team and great for football."

The euphoria of Dec. 29 has given way to the sober reality of Feb. 3. Yes, New York played competitively for a long stretch with the league's first unbeaten team in 35 years. But in the most important game-within-the-game, the battle between the Giants' pass rush and the Pats' protection, New York failed. Brady threw for 356 yards. He completed 76% of his passes. He controlled the clock for 36 minutes. He led seven scoring drives. The Giants sacked him once in 43 dropbacks. They did not intercept him.

Even on the 12 occasions when New York got significant pressure on Brady -- a solid hit on him a split second after he threw, or enough pressure that Brady had to hurry a pass or move in the pocket -- the New England quarterback was coolly efficient. He was sacked once, by unblocked linebacker Reggie Torbor on a fourth-quarter blitz; that was one of only two times in those 43 dropbacks when a Giants pass rusher wasn't at least deflected by a blocker. The unit that led the NFL in sacks with 53 this season got only two jailbreak rushes on Brady.

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