Giants defense needs to keep pressure on Patriots’ Tom Brady

What the New York Giants defense must do to stop the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl (Feb. 5, 3:30 p.m. PST, Channel 4):

New England has a truckload of offensive weapons, but the main focus for the Giants defense has to be making quarterback Tom Brady uncomfortable.

New York’s defensive front has been especially dominant in recent weeks, with the team collecting a combined 11 sacks in the last two games of the regular season, then repeatedly hitting and hurrying Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and San Francisco’s Alex Smith in the playoffs.

“If you take a great quarterback and knock him around, he becomes a good quarterback,” said CBS’ Rich Gannon, a former NFL quarterback and league most valuable player. “If you take a good quarterback and knock him around, he becomes a poor quarterback.”

The Giants have exceptional pass rushers up front — Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora among them — and they need to move Brady off his spot, force him to make quick decisions, and prevent him from getting into a rhythm and finding his receivers.

Brady loves to work the middle of the field, whether it’s finding tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez on medium-to-deep routes, or receiver Wes Welker underneath.

Maybe now more than ever, defensive communication is key for the Giants.

“You have to be very, very disciplined as far as your adjustments and keys,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “Make sure the man beside you is also on the same page and make sure you do whatever you do.

“We can’t get beside of ourselves because of this game, because it’s the Super Bowl, because it’s the New England Patriots. We’ve all been here before. It’s another game.”

The Giants aren’t likely to spend a moment looking back to their Super Bowl victory over the Patriots four years ago. Both teams are significantly different. But the way New York pressured and hit Brady in that game was a blueprint that they and other teams have used to beat the Patriots, as infrequently as that happens.

There’s no question the Giants defenders know Brady and his receivers well.

“He thrives on mismatches,” Tuck said, “and I think we match up well with them. With those tight ends and Wes and [receiver Deion] Branch, they can pretty much go with any route they want to go with to create mismatches.

“The people that we have in our secondary, we have safeties that play like corners and we match up pretty well with those guys. They are going to do some things that we may not be ready for at the beginning of that football game, and it is going to come down to adjustments.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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