SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Patriots secondary could have its hands full with the Giants receivers come Super Bowl Sunday.

Although the Patriots pulled out a hard-fought 38-35 victory over the Giants in the last week of the regular season to preserve their perfect record, Giants quarterback Eli Manning shredded the Patriots secondary as his receivers were able to easily get open. Manning completed 69 percent of his passes (22-for-32) for 251 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions for a 118.6 quarterback rating.

He completed passes to six different receivers which Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees says is a credit to the Giants receiving core.

“The whole group is doing well,” Pees said of the Giants receivers. “Not only is [Plaxico] Burress playing well, and he’s always playing well, but Amani Toomer is a great veteran player who makes plays…You never want to forget about him. I think [Steve] Smith is playing really well, too. I thought he had a pretty good game against Green Bay last week. The whole group is doing a good job.”

“They are great playmakers all around,” Patriots safety James Sanders said of the Giants receivers. “From Toomer to Burress to Smith, they have a lot of guys who can make plays. Manning is throwing the ball well and he’s getting it to his playmakers.”

There’s no question that Burress is Manning’s go-to-guy in the clutch. Despite playing a large portion of the season with an ankle injury, Burress led the Giants with 70 catches for 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns. He caught four passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots. “We’re going to see a lot of Plaxico,” Sanders said. “He’s their number-one guy and we’re definitely going to be ready for him on Sunday. We have to cover him. There are a lot of plays where he is running free down the field, putting his hand up and letting Eli know to just throw it up to him. We have to compete with him for 60 minutes.”

Burress is coming off his biggest game of the season (151 yards against Green Bay) so there is a lot of talk about putting franchise defensive back Asante Samuel on Burress. “He’s a big, physical, and tall guy,” Samuel said of Burress. “He’s 6-6 and 230 [pounds]. He’s got a lot of speed. He can go get the ball anywhere on the field if you put it in his area. He’s definitely a challenging guy...I’m definitely excited about the challenge.”

Said Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, “Really, Plaxico has been playing on a different level. He’s been playing like a man possessed. But at the same time, our secondary, we need to play better. We need to get more pressure on the quarterback and we need to make more plays when we have the opportunity.”

That seemed to be the consensus of the Patriot defensive backs — that they didn’t play well against the Giants, resulting in Manning’s four touchdown passes.

“That game was just a mess,” Samuel said. “We played terrible on defense. Eli threw four touchdowns and for [251] yards. We definitely don’t want to play that way. We want to go out and go back to playing Patriots football.” The Patriots were focused on stopping the run against the Giants, which they did, so that also played a big role in the Giants having success passing the ball.

Toomer, who had four catches for 41 yards against the Patriots, is the Giants No. 2 receiver. He caught 59 passes for 760 yards and three touchdowns during the regular season. He said that the Giants are talented enough to move the ball through the air against the Patriots secondary.

“I think we’ve done well,” Toomer said. “I think the fact of the matter is that Eli has spread the ball around really well and I think he has let everyone show his ability really well. There are a lot of people in this league with a lot of talent that don’t get to show their ability for one reason or another, so I think at this time we are able to show our ability and we have to take advantage of the situation.”

Smith has picked up his game lately and has emerged as the Giants No. 3 receiver, and tight end Kevin Boss has also played well. Boss had four catches for 50 yards and a touchdown against the Pats.

The Patriots say that they won’t let the Giants move the ball easily through the air on Sunday like they did in the regular season.

“We have a lot of confidence back there,” Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs said.

“Both teams have a lot of playmakers, and it just comes down to execution,” Harrison said. “We didn’t play particularly well [against them in the regular season]. I’m not taking anything away from [the Giants], but we played probably our worst game of the year on defense. We can’t get any worse than that, so we’ll definitely be prepared this time.”

roblee@projo.com