RESTORED: Giants pride.
One of Tom Coughlin's promises when he took over the team in 2004 was fulfilled Sunday night in a spectacular, unbelievable, heart-pounding fashion. The Giants are the Super Bowl XLII champions, the slayers of history, thanks to their 17-14 upset of the previously undefeated New England Patriots.
Move over Peyton - there's another Manning in town. Younger brother Eli completed the impossible of impossibles when he drove the Giants 83 yards in 12 plays to the winning touchdown in one of the greatest upsets of all time at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
"The greatest victory in the history of the franchise, without question," shouted an ecstatic co-owner John Mara after the victory.
In the end Plaxico Burress, quiet all night, backed up his ballyhooed prediction by catching the 13-yard game-winning pass from Manning with just 35 seconds to play. The wide receiver ripped past cornerback Ellis Hobbs into the corner of the end zone to catch Manning's pass.
"This is the greatest feeling in professional sports," said Burress, who had just one catch before the TD reception. "For us to come out here and win a world championship tonight - nobody gave us a shot."
The much-maligned quarterback finished a dream postseason to match the 80-yard, 12-play march Tom Brady had directed to apparently cement history for the Pats. The Giants took over on their own 17. Brandon Jacobs had to convert a fourth-and-one to keep the drive from dying.
And then came the play of the year, the play of the century so far.
Manning, named the game's Most Valuable Player, appeared to be sacked by Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour, only to somehow wriggle away and launch a pass deep down the field. On the other end was David Tyree, the little-used wideout who jumped, caught the ball on the top of his helmet, and fell to the ground with possession against the coverage of Rodney Harrison.
That put the Giants on the Patriots' 24. Manning completed another clutch pass, a third-and-10 to rookie Steve Smith, who had the sense to find the marker before he want out of bounds to stop the clock. On the next play Manning and Burress connected for the victory.
Until Brady led his team to the go-ahead score, however, the story had been how the Giants' defense had limited the high-scoring Patriot offense to a touchdown through three quarters. They had pressured Brady and sacked him four times, but finally succumbed to a six-yard pass to Randy Moss, which appeared to give the Patriots their place in history.
"Can somebody give our defense some credit?" Burress said. "Those guys were playing phenomenal. We just hang in there all game and kept executing, never got down on ourselves. It came down to one play and we made it."
New England led, 7-3, after three quarters in one of the lowest scoring games in Super Bowl history.
The Giants' go-ahead drive began after Chris Hanson's punt reached the end zone for a touchback on the first play of the fourth quarter. On first down Manning found Boss cruising the right side behind Harrison. And the rookie carried the ball 45 yards to the Patriots' 35 before Harrison could corral him.
Manning was faced with a third-and-four from the Patriot 29 when he connected with Smith for 17 yards to the 12. Ahmad Bradshaw carried the ball to the 5, from where Manning found Tyree cutting across the middle for the TD.
Hobbs cut in front of the receiver, looking to at least knock down the pass if not intercept it. But Manning's toss made it through to Tyree, who had caught just four passes in the regular season and one previously in the postseason.
It took the Giants nearly 10 minutes to score three points, and the Patriots a little more than five minutes to score seven in the opening possessions. But what appeared to be the expected high-scoring game settled into a defensive battle, with the Giants putting an inordinate amount of pressure on Brady.
The Patriots' quarterback, sacked just 21 times in 16 regular-season games, went down three times in the first half and was smacked on several other occasions.
The battering of Brady began in earnest on the next-to-last series of the half, when he was sacked on consecutive plays by the combination of Kawika Mitchell and Michael Strahan, then by Justin Tuck.
He was hit by Gibril Wilson on the first play of the next series, which ended with another Tuck sack and a forced fumble by the omnipresent Tuck, with Osi Umenyiora recovering the ball with 10 seconds left until the long intermission.
The high-powered New England offense was held to just 81 yards in the first two quarters, although the Patriots held a 7-3 lead.
The Giants opened the game by setting a Super Bowl mark for most plays, 16 including the field goal, and most time consumed, 9:59, on a first possession, converting four first downs along the way.
