MINNEAPOLIS — The Super Bowl is in play now as a reachable, honest-to-God goal. If you are a Giants fan, nothing has ever sounded so completely crazy and perfectly reasonable at the same time.
It’s crazy because this franchise is supposed to be in the early hours of a rebuild with a rookie head coach and a roster seemingly littered with more potholes than the Cross Bronx Expressway.
It’s reasonable because the Giants just beat a 13-4 division champ in its own building in the first round of the playoffs, setting up a rematch with the top-seeded Eagles in Philadelphia, where the home team struggled to beat the Giants’ walk-ons last week.
“We’re back,” Giants co-owner John Mara told The Post in the middle of a jubilant U.S. Bank Stadium locker room after his six seed beat the third-seeded Vikings, 31-24.
Mara meant that his franchise is finally back in business after nailing down its first postseason victory since beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl, again, 11 years ago. “It felt like 1964 to [1980] all over again,” the owner said of the drought that was so hard on his old man Wellington.
Mara was reminded that he’d told The Post in 2021 that he saw Daniel Jones as a future Super Bowl winner before being asked if he could see this surging quarterback and this surging team actually advancing to the big game.
“We’re worried about Philadelphia, that’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” he responded. “I’m not going to make any predictions beyond that, believe me.”
But if the Giants are indeed “back,” doesn’t that mean the players believe they can go the distance?
“I think they believe that,” Mara agreed, “so who knows?”
That’s right, who knows? The Eagles are absolutely expected to send Jones & Co. home for the winter. But a lot of things that are expected in the NFL — like the Giants going 5-12 this year — never come to pass. Ask the Vikings about that while they’re busy packing up their gear and planning their getaways to a distant golf course or beach.
The Giants are getting better and better, a prerequisite for a deep postseason run. And Jones is suddenly looking like a runaway freight train at the sport’s most critical position, a 6-foot-5 athlete who can beat you a dozen different ways.
So once again, who knows? Back in the day, nobody thought the 2007 Giants were going to the Super Bowl, even after they effectively played the 15-0 Patriots to a draw at the end of the regular season.
But they kept getting better and better, and ultimately knocked out the 13-3 Cowboys on their field in the divisional round. In Texas Stadium that day, hours after Peyton Manning and the 13-3 defending-champion Colts had been eliminated from the playoffs, the Manning matriarch, Olivia, had this to say to a couple of scribes:
“I have a heavy heart for Peyton, but I’m proud of Eli.”
The same Eli Manning who had been pounded by critics in his first three years about as much as Jones would get pounded in his first three. Archie Manning would later say that he didn’t know who would get run out the New York market first, his son or Tom Coughlin.
Together Eli and Coughlin shocked the world and the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl. Fifteen years later, is it likely that the Giants of Jones and Saquon Barkley and Brian Daboll, the league’s Rookie of the Year, will author an even wilder story than that one?
No it’s not. And yet right after Daboll declared that playoff experience is overrated, his Giants proved him right. This team is gaining confidence by the possession and represents a credible threat to the Eagles.
“The end goal feels more in reach now,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “I think we showed each other that it’s really possible, if we just play together to keep pushing this thing.”
Maybe the Giants can survive this manhood challenge in Philly. Maybe they’ll catch a lucky break in the form of a Dallas/Tampa Bay upset of San Francisco. Or maybe the Giants can actually beat the 49ers on the road in a violent NFC title game, just like they did 11 years ago.
For now, they have to be taken seriously as contenders to reach the Super Bowl. And that’s about as improbable a statement as has been made about this franchise in nearly a century of football.
“I think as long as we stay together … the sky’s the limit,” Darius Slayton said.
The receiver dropped a late third-down pass that could have been fatal; it wasn’t. Dexter Lawrence committed a late roughing-the-passer foul that could’ve been fatal; it wasn’t. Xavier McKinney made the big fourth-down stop on T.J. Hockenson, and the Giants were on their way to Round 2.
“It’s so nice to be back and playing meaningful games,” said Mara, his voice hoarse from shouting, especially on that Lawrence penalty. “And to see our fans that excited, that’s the best thing for me.”
The best thing for everyone in blue, as it turned out, was the belief this upset inspired. The Giants didn’t just hold onto their lead in the end. They held onto the possibility that they can advance to the biggest stage in sports.
