Giants in a rush to get to Brady

• Reprints

New York Giants' Justin Tuck answers during a news conference, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, in Indianapolis. The Giants will face the New England Patriots in the NFL football Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5.(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:12AM

INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Brady’s used to hearing it. Analysts always talk about getting to Brady. Opponents always talk about hitting Brady. Heck, when Brady sits in on defensive meetings, all they talk about is knocking down the other guy’s quarterback.

So the Patriots quarterback isn’t surprised to hear the Giants talking about pressuring him, disrupting him, and yes, hitting him leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“It wouldn’t be the Super Bowl if they weren’t talking about coming to knock me down and knock me out,” Brady said with a smile.

Thanks to his quick release, heady play and stout offensive line, few teams actually get to Brady.

But the Giants are one of the few that can.

They got to him four years ago in Super Bowl XLII, sacking him five times. They got to him twice in Week 9 this season, and helped force him into two interceptions. And they’ll try to get to him again on Sunday.

“That guy is an awesome quarterback,” said Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. “It has to come down to making him uncomfortable.”

Featuring a roster loaded with fearsome pass rushers — including Jason Pierre-Paul (16.5 sacks), Osi Umenyiora (12.5 sacks in 12 total games), Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka — the Giants have gotten back to Super Bowl on the strength of their pass rush. In its last five games — all virtual or actual elimination games — New York has 20 sacks. The Giants got to Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers four times. They got to Dallas’ Tony Romo six times. They got to the Jets’ Mark Sanchez five times.

And when they didn’t actually record a sack, they usually either knocked the quarterback down, or at least made him hear footsteps.

Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

“They can get to the quarterback and hit the quarterback, and it does force the quarterback into some bad decisions and bad throws,” Brady said. “We’re going to try to eliminate those. We really can’t afford too many of those on Sunday — we had too many of those the last time we played them.”

Part of what makes the Giants’ pass rush so remarkable is how infrequently they actually blitz, allowing them to pressure the quarterback without sacrificing pass coverage — a major key against Brady and his assortment of weapons, including Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker.

And by rotating the three defensive ends — Tuck, Umenyiora and Pierre-Paul — and moving linebacker Kiwanuka up to the line of scrimmage from time to time, it keeps the pass rushers fresh, and makes them more effective later in the game.

The Giants also use stunts and bulldozing defensive tackles Chris Canty and Linval Joseph to create opportunities for the ends to get into the backfield.

“Everybody’s got to be alert,” said New England left tackle Matt Light. “Those guys do a great job of moving around and changing things up enough that you can’t relax for one second. They’re all really good at what they do, so it’s not like you can pick and choose where you get your help. You just have to go out there and play a very technical, solid game.”

The Giants expect New England to come up with its own creative ways to keep Brady upright.

“They’re going to do some things early in the game to try to throw off our rhythm,” said Tuck, who beat Logan Mankins for two sacks in the Super Bowl four years ago, and will line up against him again on Sunday. “I expect to see screen passes, I expect to see draws, I expect to see him getting the ball out of his hands quickly.”

One other key for the Patriots is the 265-pound Gronkowski. The big tight end is known for his record-setting playmaking, but he’s also an excellent blocker. And if his ankle is healthy enough to play most of the game, it could be a difference-maker for the Patriots — the Giants have just four sacks all year against two-tight-end sets, something New England runs the overwhelming majority of the time.

Not that it’ll stop the Giants from trying.

“It’s not a luxury (having so many pass rushers), it’s a style and a way in which we prefer to play,” New York coach Tom Coughlin said. “It’s a position in which we place an awful lot of stock.”

Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese have not hid the fact that they want a high-pressure defense. And by stockpiling defensive ends year after year in the draft despite already having stalwarts such as Michael Strahan, Umenyiora and Tuck over the years, they’ve kept quarterbacks all over the NFL on high alert every snap.

So the Patriots will keep breaking down film to try to stop them. And the Giants will keep coming up with new ways to get to Brady.

But in the trenches, strategy can only take you so far.

“At the end of the day, somebody up front is going to have to beat somebody,” Tuck said. “You can watch as much film as you want to, but if you do that, you can be successful against a guy like Tom.”