In what may be the biggest regular season game in quite a few years, John Madden had quite a bit of a compliment to give to Jake.
"He's the ultimate team and he is a tough guy. He just does all of the right things and says all of the right things. He knows how to play but for some reason he's never gotten the credit he deserves."
"I just go back to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago and Jake matched everything - everything the Patriots did he came right back again and if he got the ball again I thought the Panthers would have won the Super Bowl."
"He never gets thought about when you talk about your Tom Bradys and your Peyton Mannings and Eli Mannings and all of your Super Bowl quarterbacks. I am not saying he's up there with Tom Brady and Peytan Manning. But he's pretty doggone good."
-John Madden ((Charlotte Observer.))
John Madden has also thinks one of the keys to the game is how the Panthers use Steve Smith, what countermeasures the Giants employ to stop him, and how the Panthers react and exploit those countermeasures.