Giants VP of communications Pat Hanlon: 1
Giants fans who questioned the team’s lack of offseason moves: 0

Let’s go back to Aug. 11, when Hanlon called out some of those fans on Twitter. Now that the Giants are playing in the Super Bowl, they’re even funnier than they were before.

Fan: “Can you say definitively the Giants are better than last year?”
Hanlon: “Can you say we're worse, knucklehead?”

Fan: “All teams need to rebuild at one point, I'm not going to panic until the season begins.”
Hanlon: “Re-build my ass! I got your re-build.”

Fan: “Giants off-season can be summed up w/ one word: Debacle.”
Hanlon: “Thanks Lombardi. Cause I know you know.”

Paraphrased fan: “The Giants are worse on paper than they were last year.”
Hanlon: “We don't play on paper. You know what you can do w/ that paper?”

And Hanlon closed with this gem, “Typically, we try to make our noise in Jan-Feb. You like winning? Sit tight.”

Now, in defense of those fans -- and there were many more than just the ones above -- the Giants had collapsed down the stretch in 2010 and missed out on the playoffs for a second straight season.

Many were expecting offseason changes to be made, but they weren’t. Steve Smith became an Eagle. Kevin Boss became a Raider. Plaxico Burress became a Jet. Veterans Shaun O’Hara and Rich Seubert were released. David Baas was the marquee free-agent signing. Osi Umenyiora was disgruntled. Things did look pretty bleak.

During the course of the season, the Giants lost Terrell Thomas, Jon Goff, Clint Sintim, Bruce Johnson, Brian Witherspoon, Justin Tryon, Domenik Hixon, Michael Coe, Michael Clayton, Will Beatty, Stacy Andrews and Marvin Austin to season-ending injuries.

They also lost five of six after starting off 6-2, had the 27th-best defense and the 32nd-best rushing offense.

But Eli Manning and Jason Pierre-Paul emerged as superstars, some unknown wideout named Victor Cruz did too, and Big Blue’s D turned it around late in the season, as the Giants went “All In” and won five straight games to reach the Super Bowl.

Incredible, isn’t it?

Here’s some interesting tidbits on the Giants as they await Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5 courtesy of our friends at ESPN Stats & Information:

• Eli Manning became the first quarterback in NFL history to win five postseason road games.

• He is the first QB in Super Bowl era to have three games with 275-plus pass yards and two-plus pass TDs in a single postseason.

• Manning’s 58 pass attempts in Sunday’s NFC Championship game are the second-most by a quarterback in a postseason win in history (Bernie Kosar, 64 for the 1986 Browns).

• Tom Coughlin has seven postseason road victories, tied with Tom Landry for the most in history.

• The Giants are the first team with a negative point differential in the regular season to reach the Super Bowl.

• The Giants are 5-0 in NFC Championship games -- best all-time.

• Lawrence Tynes became the first kicker to twice make an overtime field goal to put his team into the Super Bowl.

• From Elias: By defeating the Falcons, Packers, and 49ers, the Giants became only the second team to reach the Super Bowl via playoff victories over three opponents with a better regular-season record than their own. The only other team to take that path to the Super Bowl was Arizona, which posted the same 9–7 record in 2008 that the Giants did this season.