Page "New York Giants" Paragraph 23

The 2000 season was considered a make-or-break year for Fassel.

The conventional wisdom was that Fassel needed to have a strong year and a playoff appearance to save his job.

After two back-to-back losses at home against St. Louis and Detroit, the Giants fell to 7 – 4 and their playoff prospects were in question.

At a press conference following the Giants ' loss to Detroit, Fassel guaranteed that " his team is going to the playoffs ".

The Giants responded, winning the rest of their regular season games to finish the season 12 – 4 and earn a bye as the NFC's top seed.

The Giants won their first playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, 20 – 10, and defeated the Minnesota Vikings 41 – 0 in the NFC Championship game.

They advanced to play the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV.

Though the Giants went into halftime down only 10 – 0, the Ravens dominated the second half.

Their defense harassed Kerry Collins all game long, resulting in Collins completing only 15 of 39 passes for 112 yards and 4 interceptions.

The Ravens won the game 34 – 7.