Plenty of reasons to believe the Giants can beat the Pats

The bandwagon-jumpers and the romantics in love with the idea that there is a divine destiny in the NFL will tell you that New England coach Bill Belichick is the smartest man in the world.

But his Patriots are not a lock to complete the first-ever 19-0 season with a victory in Super Bowl XLII.

There are several reasons the New York Giants can win:

• The Giants continue to build momentum. They are playing their most impressive football of the season, winning three straight playoff games on the road, even though they were the underdog each time.

They've won 10 straight road games this season, the most in NFL history, and the Super Bowl is the ultimate road game.

The Patriots will have played just two road games in the 2½ months prior to Big Game No. XLII, and they won by only 3 points in both.

• The Patriots' victory over the injury-ravaged San Diego Chargers in the AFC title game was unimpressive. With a healthy team, the Chargers wouldn't have had to keep settling for field goals on their repeated trips into the red zone.

The Giants scored touchdowns on all four of their red-zone opportunities against New England in the final week of the regular season, with each score coming on an Eli Manning pass.

• Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress presents a matchup nightmare, especially against the Patriots' pipsqueak corners.

With two weeks to let his sore ankle, Burress will be even healthier than he was against the Packers when he caught 11 passes for 154 yards against Pro Bowl cornerback Al Harris.

Burress has a 7-inch height advantage on Patriots Pro Bowl corner Asante Samuel, and an 8-inch edge on Ellis Hobbs, the Pats' other corner. Also, the 232-pound Burress is 47 pounds heavier than Samuel and has 42 pounds on Hobbs.

• Randy Moss has disappeared. After finishing second in the NFL with 1,493 receiving yards and first with 23 touchdowns, Moss has 2 catches in the postseason for 32 yards and no scores.

Opponents have figured out that it makes more sense to take Moss out of the equation and let Brady dump the ball off to Wes Welker, who tied for the NFL lead with 112 catches.

Welker has 16 mostly meaningless catches in the postseason for 110 yards, a measly 7.0-yard average with a long gain of 12 yards. The Giants will gladly concede Welker the short stuff and pound him after the catch.

• Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's performance has also tapered off. He was picked off three times last week in his second-worst game of the season, statistically, with a 66.4 passer rating.

Brady's four worst performances of the season have all come in his last seven games.

• The Giants run the ball better and defend against the run better than the Patriots.

Don't be fooled by Laurence Maroney's four 100-yard efforts in the last five games. Teams prefer to allow New England a few yards at a time rather than letting Brady and Moss beat them deep. And the only time Maroney didn't get 100 in the past five games was against the Giants, who allowed him just 46 yards on 19 carries, a 2.4-yard average.

• Giants quarterback Eli Manning hasn't been picked off at all in three postseason games, and his confidence continues to increase, as does his teammates confidence in him.

"He is a great quarterback," said veteran defensive end Osi Umenyiora after the NFC title game. "He's here for a reason. Eli did a great job of managing the game, and he just keeps getting better."

• The Giants know they can beat the Patriots. Even though they lost 38-35 in Week 17, the Giants led 28-16 late in the third quarter.