three playoff games on the road to get to Super Bowl XLII, and after looking very mediocre at times during the regular season. In fact, based on regular-season performance, the 2007 New York Giants were the worst team to ever reach a Super Bowl, a curiosity later surpassed when the 2011 New York Giants won Super Bowl XLVI to become the first team with a negative point differential to win a Super Bowl. NFL Films named the 2007 Giants as the 53rd greatest team of all time in their countdown of the top 100 teams in football history. Offseason Expectations After their poor finish to the 2006 season, where the Giants lost 7 of their last 9 games after a 6–2 start (albeit achieving a playoff berth in the last week of the season), expectations for the Giants were generally low. Many pundits began to consider Eli Manning as a potential draft bust, especially when considering fellow 2004 draft pick Ben Roethlisberger's Super Bowl run in 2005 and Philip Rivers leading his team, the Chargers, to a 14–2 regular season in 2006; making matters worse, older brother Peyton Manning, who Eli was often compared unfavorably to, had led the Colts to the Super Bowl victory that same year and won the MVP of the game. At the same time, head coach Tom Coughlin came under intense criticism due to his fiery coaching style and strict team rules, and many (including fans) believed that he deserved to be fired after the team's collapse in the second half of the season. In particular, they noted the team's lack of discipline and unity down the stretch and considered these actions a reflection of Coughlin's coaching. Finally Tiki Barber, the Giants's all-time leading rusher and the catalyst for much of their success the previous two seasons, retired at just 31 years of age to enter a broadcasting career. The Giants decided to give Tom Coughlin one more chance heading into the 2007 season, giving him a one-year contract extension. This essentially indicated that he needed to get the Giants into the postseason in order to receive a long-term contract extension. After his family demonstrated concern over his on-field persona and his apparent anger towards his players, Coughlin decided to undergo a personality change heading into the season. While his strict team rules (most notoriously, his five-minute early rule for a team meeting) remained in