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February 4, 2008

New job coming for Spagnuolo?

The Giants' defensive performance in Super Bowl XLII certainly reflects positively on D-coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who will reportedly interview with the Redskins for their head coaching vacancy in the morning.

Spagnuolo, who has worked with Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson in the past -- and the Eagles were one of the teams to put up a strong defensive plan against the Pats this season -- said he never imagined his unit would hold the most prolific offense in NFL history to just 14 points.

"In all honesty, no. I believed in the guys and what they were and what they did and what they could do," he said. "But I just had so much respect for New England, that I thought if our offense could control the ball and we could score a few points, then maybe we could outscore them."

Spagnuolo's game plan called for his team to get away from edge blitzes and blitz from the interior, and New York ended up with five sacks and nine hits on Tom Brady.

"We threw one (edge blitz) at them which they picked up. I don't know if we got to call all the blitzes in our game plan," he said. "I do know this: there was a time there when I thought Tom Brady was finding out where we were bringing it, and he was changing the protection. We had to get out of some of those things."

Spagnuolo guessed that New York blitzed on 30 to 35 percent of New England's snaps.

"I have to give credit to the four guys up front," he said. "We hung our hat on those guys all year long and we did it again and it paid off."

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:43 AM | Permalink