REMATCH

Patriots are back in the Super Bowl against the Giants

— the team that ruined their perfect season in 2008

Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft “shuddered” when he saw Tom Brady take a crunching hit on a 1-yard touchdown plunge. He even wondered if Brady’s back was broken.

Such a graceful dive. Such a powerful blow.

“It was scary,” Kraft said Monday, his momentary fears quickly put to rest, “but he popped right up.”

Brady shook off the body-bending force of Ray Lewis’ helmet to his lower back, spiked the ball and punched the air in celebration. He had just scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter of New England’s 23-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game Sunday.

He was OK and so are the Super Bowl-bound Patriots, who will face the New York Giants on Feb. 5.

But at the instant of impact, there was concern in the owner’s box where Kraft was sitting with friends, family members and former Patriots.

“We all shuddered up in the box,” he said. “We thought that his back might have been broken.”

Another unexpected occurrence also caught Kraft’s attention — the vertical leap of the lumbering Brady. He soared high over his offensive line, arcing his back and reaching the ball over the goal line while clutching it with both hands.

“I actually didn’t know he had that kind of rise,” Kraft said with a smile.

But as Brady was landing, the picture wasn’t as pretty.

He had his head toward the ground and his legs up in the air as if he was about to complete a somersault. Then Lewis, who had lined up a few yards behind the line, barreled in for the blow and sent Brady’s legs back from where they had come. Both players got up without jawing as their teammates prepared for the extra point.

“That’s the way the game should be played, physical,” Patriots wide receiver Matthew Slater said.

Giants

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

The New York Giants’ are Tom Coughlin’s team.

The Maras and Tischs own the NFC champions. General manager Jerry Reese built them and made them Super Bowl ready.

This team though is all Coughlin. The expression the players have used in their recent five-game run to the title game is “all in,” and it’s all in Tom’s way. They have bought in 100 percent with their 65-year-old coach, and he is enjoying every second of it.

When the Giants (12-7) ended the Patriots’ 20-game regular-season winning streak at home in November, Coughlin was hoisted in the air by his players. He loved it.

When they went through a four-game losing streak right after that, he kept them together. And when they won Sunday, they hugged.

Coughlin said he has a special feeling and a special vibe for this team, which has reached the Super Bowl.

“I talk about an atmosphere that has been created, the cooperation between the players and the coaches and the harmony that is a great feeling that exits,” Coughlin said. “It has been that type of feeling that has sustained us over the course of the year, but even more; that has seen people grow closer together.”