ELI MANNING is hoping to lead his New York Giants to victory in Green Bay this weekend before marching to a Super Bowl win – just as he did in 2008 and 2012.
The Giants and Packers meet in the tie of the wild card round on Sunday night at Lambeau Field with temperatures set to plummet to -12 celcius.
And Manning has fond memories of playoff trips to Green Bay, having guided the Giants to victory in the 2008 NFC Championship Game there, before taking down the Packers again in the Divisional Round in 2012.
“They were playing good football,” Manning recalled of the game five years ago.
“Their offence was scoring a lot of points. But we did a great job in protection, hit some good plays and the defence got four or five turnovers. It went our way that night.”
This season marks the first time the Giants have made the playoffs since their Super Bowl win in 2012 having won 11 of their 16 games in the regular-season.
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But it wasn’t enough for them to win their NFC East division ahead of the Dallas Cowboys, which means they must settle for a road trip against a red hot Packers team.
Green Bay have won six games in a row to rescue their season having slipped to 4-6.
There were calls for head coach Mike McCarthy to be sacked, but quarterback Aaron Rodgers boldly predicted that his team would “run the table”, and they did so.
Rodgers’ form over the last six weeks has catapulted him into contention for the Most Valuable Player award, and Giants head coach Ben McAdoo, who used to be his quarterback coach in Green Bay, admits the 33-year-old will be hard to stop on Sunday.
“Aaron is playing out of his mind right now,” McAdoo said.
“He’s on fire, taking care of the ball and is moving very well in and out of the pocket, making all the throws.
“I don’t have any kryptonite. I’ve spent some time in the building with him and in the room with him. You know that when he’s on fire, the weather doesn’t really factor for him.”
Green Bay have made the playoffs for eight seasons in a row, but have had some gut-wrenching defeats in that time.
Rodgers admits he thought the Packers were destined for glory in 2012 having won 15 and lost just one in the regular-season before the Giants spoiled the party.
He said: "I thought we were going to run through that thing and be in the Super Bowl. But every year, you have that feeling right now where you know that it could happen.
"It’s win or go home at this point. We know what it takes to win, and also the feeling to be on the other side of that. We’ve been part of some special play-off games over the years with some highs and lows.
"It’s always great to be able to come back and play in front of our fans. We love the weather advantage we’ve had over the last couple years. We’ve played well in the cold - we're pretty hot right now."
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