Giants have McAdoo factor in playoffs

Fittingly, the best playoff game in the NFL will be played Sunday at 4:40 p.m. at Lambeau Field in Green Bay where the New York Giants will be facing the Green Bay Packers. You have a hot quarterback in Aaron Rodgers going up against what I feel is the best defense in the league.

You cannot run on the Giants, they'll stuff you. You cannot pass on the Giants, they'll both cover you and intercept you. Rodgers will have to use all of his skills to find a way to beat them and the man who knows the quarterback's skills better than anybody — because he coached him for 8 years — is Ben McAdoo.

McAdoo was brought to Green Bay in 2006 to coach the tight ends and in 2012 he became quarterbacks coach. He left the Packers in 2014 to become the Giants' offensive coordinator, before moving up into the head coaching position in 2016. If anyone knows Rodgers' weaknesses and tendencies (and there aren't very many), it's McAdoo.

The head coach also has quarterback Eli Manning who went into Green Bay in 2011 and bested Rodgers and the Pack. McAdoo was there. It was after that game that he would become Rodgers' quarterback coach.

I went to Green Bay on October 9 and saw the Giants lose 23-16 in a game where both teams were still trying to find themselves. Rodgers offense was struggling and the Giants had just been taken apart by the then-undefeated Minnesota Vikings the previous week.

Things are different now with the Giants. The defense has risen to dominance. They've held the Redskins to 10 points, the Eagles to 10, the Lions to 6 and the Cowboys to 7. The Giants may not score much but they make sure the other team scores less.

As for the offense — McAdoo's specialty — after being criticized for not scoring and having no-run games, the Giants have quietly been establishing the run-winning time of possession against the Redskins. Their new featured running back Paul Perkins ran for 102 yards.

Aaron Rodgers, who once told the fans to relax before taking his team to the playoffs, this year said before the Eagles game that they would run the table. Now six wins later here they are, at home going up against a defense that has the best chance to beat him, a quarterback that has done it  before, and a coach that knows enough about him to pull it off. I can't wait for Sunday!