I traveled to Tampa Bay in January 2008 to see the Giants play the Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs. The Giants ended up coming away with a decisive 24-14 victory on their way to winning Super Bowl XLII, but there was one other important thing I took away from that game. Firstly, it was impossible to ignore the unusually high percentage of Giants fans filling the seats at Raymond James Stadium. At least every section had a small cluster of blue shirts standing tall amidst the flag-waving Bucs fans. This struck me as fairly odd, considering it was a home playoff game, the first playoff game that the Buccaneers had hosted in 2 years. With the game all but decided late in the fourth quarter, and with most of the Bucs fans filing out of the stadium and heading to their cars, the game suddenly became a home game for the Giants. Everywhere you looked there was blue, with chants of “Let’s Go Giants!” drowning out the public address system. I was fascinated at how a road wild-card team like the Giants had essentially run the Buccaneers and their fans out of their own stadium.

A sidenote: at one point during the first half a Tampa Bay fan sitting behind me made a sarcastic remark during an in-stadium ad for StubHub, claiming that they “shouldn’t have allowed Giants fans to buy tickets to the game.” This was a comment that I found interesting because after all, wasn’t it the Tampa Bay fans who couldn’t sell out their own home playoff game the reason why Giants fans were able to get tickets in the first place? It is, because that’s pretty much how StubHub works.

Nevertheless, this continued to intrigue me on the taxi ride from the stadium to our hotel as our driver, in broken English, proceeded to rant for close to a half an hour about how bad of a coach Jon Gruden is was. It made me wonder how a city full of people (and cab drivers) supposedly so passionate about football, can’t manage to represent their team on game-day.

Fast-forward to yesterday afternoon. It’s midway through the second quarter and the Giants have a 14-0 lead on the Buccaneers when the skies open up and rain begins to pour down on Raymond James Stadium. The Bucs fans (the ones who you would assume might be accustomed to the periodic bursts of rain characteristic of a humid South Florida day) head for shelter, leaving behind mostly Giants fans. Bob Papa, the Giants play-by-play man on WFAN estimated that there must have been close to 7,000 Giants fans in the crowd yesterday. Whatever it is, the high number of New York transplants that retire to Florida, or Giants fans who make the trip looking for a mini-vacation, it seems like Tampa Bay is becoming the Giants’ home away from home.

Whether you were in Tampa yesterday or just watching from home, you had to be impressed with what you saw if you’re a Giants fan. The Big Blue defense, who had allowed 251 rushing yards to the Cowboys last week, held the Bucs to a laughable 28 yards on the ground yesterday. In fact, the leading rusher for Tampa Bay was second string quarterback Josh Johnson who picked up 15 yards on a quarterback scramble in the fourth quarter.

The Buccaneers offense was all kinds of incompetent yesterday. Starting quarterback Byron Leftwich, who was pulled in the fourth quarter for his inability to complete a pass for more than 4 yards, finished with a cool 22 yards on 7-16 passing with one interception. The interception actually may have been his longest completion of the day. Leftwich missed so many open receivers that T.O. called him out in his postgame press conference and he doesn’t even play on the same team. (Okay, he didn’t, but if he was in a Bucs uniform yesterday you know it would have happened).

The big story of the day though wasn’t just the Bucs extreme ineptitude. The Giants defense looked as good as ever, and followed up a shaky Week 2 performance where they allowed 30 points by posting their first shutout since Week 8 of 2005 and first road shutout since 1983. Also impressive: the Buccaneers did not pick up their first 1st down of the game until there was 4:55 left in the 3rd quarter.

Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw helped to set the pace right from the start as the Giants gained 226 yards on the ground. Bradshaw topped 100 yards for the second time in his career, finishing with 104 yards on 14 carries, and Jacobs added 92 yards on 26 carries and a touchdown. His score, a 6-yard run on the opening drive of the game, help set the tone for the Giants offense as the touchdown capped a methodical 12 play, 80 yard drive. Eli Manning (14/24, 161 yds. 2 TD) found Steve Smith three times on that drive for 33 yards. Two possessions later, Manning would find Smith again for a 4-yard touchdown pass to put New York up 14-0. Smith (7 rec., 63 yds. TD) and Mario Manningham (4 rec. 55 yds.) both had impressive games once again, combining to catch 11 of Manning’s 14 completions. The final points of the game were scored on an 18 yard pass from Manning to Sinorice Moss, his second career touchdown reception, and Manning’s 103rd touchdown pass, a mark that ties him with Fran Tarkenton for third all-time in Giants history.