Bear Pascoe knows how to pick them.
The third-year tight end, born and raised in northern California, scored his first career touchdown on Sunday night against the 49ers.
Playing high school and college (Fresno State) football within a few hundred miles of Candlestick Park, Pascoe hooked up with Eli Manning early in the second quarter, scoring on a six-yard pass over the middle. Pascoe's touchdown gave the Giants their first points of the game as they went on to win the NFC Championship.
"To break the ice in that area of the game, it was a great game to do it in," Pascoe said. "It was nice to finally get on the board."
A few plays later, starting center David Baas had to leave momentarily with an abdominal contusion. Kevin Boothe slid over from left guard to center while Mitch Petrus came off the sideline to fill in.
"It was funny because we went running in yelling our personnel," Pascoe said. "We were a little confused between me and Jake [Ballard]. Eli says he doesn't remember it, but me and Jake switched positions right at the last minute. I was on the backside all week, and he was to the front side. It just worked out. When the ball was snapped, they kind of jammed Jake and Victor [Cruz] so it kind of created a little pocket on the strong side. So I just slipped in behind the Mike and Eli was able to find me. It worked out just right."
Taking up the pride of the Giants' versatility on the offensive line, Boothe tried to calm matters down.
"It was unfortunate that Dave went out, but they're not going to stop the game," Boothe said. "I just had to bump over and Mitch came in and played well for us. We were able to finish off the drive with Bear's touchdown catch. That's what we needed, we needed to score points. We knew that points were going to be at a premium, and we were fortunate enough to finish off that drive."
Meanwhile, Petrus was just doing his job coming off the bench.
"It was really loud so I'm up trying to look at my peripheral for the snap to make sure I'm not late or early," Petrus said. "But [David] Diehl communicated. Even though it was loud, I could hear the calls so no confusion. Bear made a heck of a play, my hat is off to him. You've got to score in the red zone."
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