Giants road warriors again in 27-16 win over Chiefs
01:16 AM CDT on Monday, October 5, 2009
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The New York Giants have established themselves as the early front-runner for home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. But that may not give the Giants their best chance of reaching the Super Bowl.
There is no better road team in the NFL than the Giants. They proved that again Sunday with a 27-16 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, which gave the Giants a rare sweep of a three-game road trip.
There have been 101 three-game trips in the NFL since 1990, and this marked only the eighth sweep. The Giants beat the Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first two games.
"It's a mentality that Coach [Tom] Coughlin has instilled in us," Giants Pro Bowl defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We are a very confident team on the road."
The Giants sit atop the division and conference with a 4-0 record and play seven of their remaining 12 games at home.
"I'm sure the players will be pleased going home next week," Coughlin said.
But that makes the Giants an enigma. Since the start of the 2007 season, the Giants have played better on the road than at home. They are 15-4 away from the New Jersey Meadowlands but only 11-7 on their home field.
The Giants have beaten Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Arizona on the road during the regular season and both Dallas and Green Bay in the playoffs. They have won indoors (Minnesota) and out (Chicago), in sauna (Dallas) and frigid (Buffalo) conditions.
"Our focus on the road is no turnovers and no penalties," Giants center Shaun O'Hara said.
The Giants arrived in Kansas City with the fewest penalties (13) and second fewest turnovers (two) in the NFC. But New York was completely out of character against the Chiefs, turning the ball over twice in the first quarter and committing a season-high eight penalties in the game.
Not that it mattered against a winless Kansas City team that has won only two of its last 29 games. The Giants did what they needed to do to stay unbeaten.
"Our mind-set on the road is to start fast and score on our first possession," O'Hara said. "That puts the game in our favor. If we can get the lead, our defense does a great job of protecting it."
New York was on the scoreboard before the crowd of 69,238 had settled into its seats. Kansas City's Jamaal Charles fumbled away the opening kickoff at his own 16 and Eli Manning put the Giants up 7-0 on the fifth snap of the game with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Steve Smith.
The Giants now have two of the eight three-game road sweeps since 1990. New York also accomplished the feat in 1994. Coughlin also has two such sweeps. He coached the Jacksonville Jaguars to a three-game sweep in 2001.
"I'm proud of this team," Coughlin said. "I'm proud of the players, proud of the coaches."
If the Giants play as well at home as they do on the road the rest of the way, they will be the team to beat in the entire NFL, not just the NFC.
Rick Gosselin shares his NFL analysis Wednesdays through Fridays on the NFL blog.
Rick Gosselin is the author of GoodFellows, the story of Detroit's surprisingly successful St. Ambrose football teams of the '50s and '60s.