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Giants are World Champions!
QB Eli Manning engineers Super Bowl winning touchdown drive!
By Mike Eisen, Giants.com

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February 4, 2008

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The Greatest Football Story Ever Told concluded Sunday night. But instead of it ending with the crowning of an undefeated champion, the Giants authored a shocking and fantastic finish.

Huge underdogs entering the game, Eli Manning engineered a fourth quarter comeback drive for the ages and concluded perhaps the greatest postseason run in NFL history by upsetting the New England Patriots, 17-14, in Super Bowl XLII in University of Phoenix Stadium. The Giants won their third championship of the Super Bowl era - the first in 17 years - and seventh overall in what will surely be remembered as one of the most exciting title games in NFL history. Indeed, it was the first of 42 Super Bowls in which the lead changed hands three times in the fourth quarter.

Plaxico Burress scored the game-winning points with only 35 seconds remaining on a 13-yard pass from Manning. The score concluded a 12-play, 83-yard drive that commenced immediately after New England had taken a 14-10 lead with less than three minutes remaining.

"It feels great," said Manning, who was voted the game's Most Valuable Player. "It's unbelievable. It's the fight on this team. I'm so proud of our players, our coaches, everybody. We're always believing and having faith in each other and having faith on our team.
We find a way to win. We had no doubt. We believed the whole time and we made it happen."

The victory was particularly meaningful because the Giants defeated a Patriots team that many NFL experts had already anointed as the best in history. New England entered the game 18-0, including a three-point victory over the Giants in the regular season finale. Most oddsmakers had installed the Patriots as a two-touchdown favorite over the Giants, who finished 14-6.

"We beat the mighty Patriots," guard Chris Snee said.

"They had a nice 18-0 start," wide receiver Amani Toomer said.

For Toomer and 15-year veteran Michael Strahan, this triumph was sweet redemption. They were the only Giants players remaining from the team that lost to Baltimore Super Bowl XXXV. It was a poignant moment for Jeff Feagles, who waited 20 seasons to play in his first Super Bowl.

Perhaps most importantly, it validated Manning, who has absorbed so much criticism in his four years, as one of the NFL's elite quarterbacks. He led the Giants to a mind-boggling 11 consecutive triumphs away from home, including postseason victories in Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay. The Giants were the visiting team on Sunday.

"The road signified for us, the coming together of team - the only people that cared about us were the guys standing there on our sideline," Coach Tom Coughlin said. "So we rode that emotion all the way through."

The Giants had a long list of heroes. Manning completed 19 of 34 passes for 255 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, which deflected off Steve Smith's hands. David Tyree scored the Giants' first touchdown and made an unbelievable catch on the game-winning drive. Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for 87 rushing yards. Toomer caught six passes for 84 yards and Smith added five for 50 yards. Lawrence Tynes kicked a 32-yard field goal, which ultimately proved to be the deciding points.

But it was the defense that rose highest to the occasion. The Patriots averaged almost 37 points a game in the regular season. The Giants held them to 14. New England averaged 411.3 yards a game, but totaled only 274 in the Super Bowl. The Patriots rushed for only 45 yards and did not have a run longer than nine yards. Tom Brady was sacked five times.

"We felt like we could (dominate them)," Strahan said. "We've done that all year. I guess everyone thought that we'd done it all year, we led the league in sacks, we do it in the playoffs and supposedly when we get against the Patriots, we're supposed to not be able to pass rush. That's what we do. We stopped the run as well. Our guys do what we always do. There was nothing special. We felt like we could do it from the beginning and did not listen to anyone who said we couldn't."

Confidence is great, but even defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo admitted he never expected to hold the Patriots to 14 points, their lowest total of the season.

"In all honesty, no," Spagnuolo said. "I believed in the guys and what they were and what they did and what they could do. But, I just had so much respect for New England, that I thought that if our offense could control the ball and we could score a few points, then maybe we could outscore them, just in case."

The great defensive effort could have gone for naught had Manning led the offense down the field to the game-winning score.

Brady's six-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss gave the Pats a 14-10 lead with just 2:42 remaining. Cornerback Corey Webster slipped on the play and New England reached the end zone at the end of a 12-play, 80-yard drive.

But instead of despair on the Giants' sideline, there was confidence - in Manning, the offense and in their destiny.

"I was saying the final score was (going to be) 17-14," Strahan said. "And I went over to our defensive backs and I told them, '17-14. Repeat it. I want to hear you say it.' I kept walking up and down the sidelines saying that 17-14 was going to be the final and amazingly, that's what it was. It was a little nerve-racking."

"That's the position you want to be in," said Manning, who completed five of nine passes for 77 yards on the game-winning drive. "You want to have the ball in your hands, four minutes left - go down, you've got to score a touchdown. That's where you want to be, a chance to win the game."

After Domenik Hixon was blasted by Ray Vetrone on the kickoff, the Giants took possession at their 17 with 2:39 remaining. Manning quickly threw an 11-yard pass to Toomer. Two incompletions left the Giants facing a third-and-10. Toomer got nine on a pass to the left side and on fourth-and-one, Jacobs gained two yards.

Manning scrambled for five yards, then threw incomplete down the right sideline for Tyree. That set up a third-and-five from the Giants' 44. Manning and Tyree responded with a play that instantly became a part of Giants lore.

Manning dropped back to pass and faced a heavy rushed. Seemingly about to be sacked, he somehow escaped, steadied himself and fired a pass down the middle of the field for Tyree, who was closely covered by safety Rodney Harrison. Both players jumped for the ball, which somehow landed on top of Tyree's helmet. But the receiver wrestled the ball away from Harrison for what may well be the greatest catch in Super Bowl history. The 32-yard gain gave the Giants a first down at the New England 24. The Giants called a timeout with 59 seconds remaining.

"That play alone took a few years off my life," Strahan said.

"It looks like (Manning) is in the grasp or on his way down," Coughlin said. "All of a sudden Eli is able to shake that off. He steps up in the pocket and fires the ball down the field. It's a contested catch. It's not like the guys is sitting there in center field by himself. Two people go up. Two people come down with the ball. David wrestles the ball away. I don't know that there's ever been a bigger play in the Super Bowl than that play."

Before the Super Bowl, Tyree had played 15 regular season and postseason games and had a total of five catches for 39 yards and no touchdowns. Against the Patriots he had three receptions for 43 yards, including the game-saver and the Giants' first touchdown.

Tyree and Manning credited each other for the amazing play.

"What it comes down to is making the play," Tyree said. "Eli did an unbelievable job. I honestly don't know how he got out of it. And when the ball is in the air you have to go get it. That's the job."

"It was just a great catch by David Tyree," Manning said of the incredible play. "I found a way to get loose, and just really threw it up. He made an unbelievable catch and saved the game."

Actually, the Giants still needed to score and soon found themselves in dire straits. Manning was sacked for a one-yard loss by Adalius Thomas and Manning's pass for Tyree fell incomplete, setting up a third-and-11. But Manning came through again, finding Smith on the sideline for a 12-yard gain to the 13 with 39 seconds remaining.

On the next play, Burress lined up wide left, covered by cornerback Ellis Hobbs. The Patriots had been overplaying the slant routes, so Burress faked going inside, the popped out toward the sideline. Hobbs momentarily lost his footing and Manning lofted the ball toward the end zone. Burress, playing with his usual assortment of ankle, knee and shoulder injuries, hauled in the pass to give the Giants the lead with only 35 seconds left.

"They were basically double-teaming me all night, playing a man press, playing a guy over the top," Burress said. "We were just waiting for that one time where we could get him over there in single coverage. I gave him a slant fake, he bit it, Eli put it up there and I came down with it. I just told myself, 'God, if you could just get me out here tonight, based on what I've been through all year with the knee and the ankle and the back and everything.' I'm just so grateful for the opportunity."

"It was just a fade route and they came with an all out blitz," Manning said. "They had been playing zone coverage. They came with an all out blitz and the corner sat because he thought we might run something short. He ran right by him and made a great catch to win the game."

Oh, but the Giants still had to stop Brady and the Patriots one more time. But New England never really had a chance. The Pats took over on their 26-yard line after Zak DeOssie and Chase Blackburn crunched Laurence Maroney on the kickoff return.

After a Brady incompletion, Jay Alford - one of several rookies to make big plays for the Giants - sacked the league MVP for a 10-yard loss. Brady then threw two long incomplete passes to Moss, the latter with one second remaining. Bedlam ensued, the field was cleared and Manning kneeled down for the final play.

The Giants took a 10-7 lead on Manning's five-yard touchdown pass to Tyree with 11:05 remaining in the fourth quarter. On second-and-goal for the five, Manning fired a strike into the end zone for Tyree.

"It's a lovely feeling," Tyree said. "I honestly came out here and I expected to have a great day."

The score capped a six-play, 80-yard drive that featured major contributions by rookies, tight end Kevin Boss, Smith and running back Ahmad Bradshaw.

On the first play of the drive, Boss caught Manning's pass at the Giants' 40-yard line, stepped away from Harrison's attempted tackle and turned it into a 45-yard gain to the New England 35-yard line. Three plays later, Smith made a terrific catch for a 17-yard gain to the 12. Bradshaw, then ran for seven yards to the five. Tyree scored on the next play.

Before the gut-wrenching fourth quarter, the game was a defensive struggle. The Patriots led at the end of three quarters, 7-3, the second-lowest three-period point total in Super Bowl history (nine points in Super Bowl IX between Pittsburgh and Minnesota).

Neither team scored in the third quarter. New England owned the ball for the first 8:17 of the quarter, but got nothing out of it when Brady's long fourth-down pass for Jabar Gaffney fell incomplete.

The Giants punted on their lone third-quarter possession.

The Patriots led at halftime, 7-3, thanks to Maroney's one-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter. The three points tied for the Giants' lowest first-half output of the season. They scored three points in each of their games against the Washington Redskins (Sept. 23 and Dec. 16).

After the Giants held the ball for almost the first 10 minutes of the game, the Patriots responded with a 12-play, 56-yard series that took 5:04 to complete.

Brady completed only three of seven passes on the drive. But the Patriots converted their first two third-down opportunities, the first on Maroney's five-yard run, the second on an eight-yard pass to Wes Welker (a game-high 11 receptions for 103 yards).

Two minutes later, New England faced a third-and-10 from the Giants' 17. Brady threw into the end zone for tight end Ben Watson. The ball fell incomplete, but Antonio Pierce was penalized for interfering with Watson, which gave the Pats a first-and-goal at the one. Maroney was stopped short off left tackle on the final play of the quarter. When the teams switched sides, Maroney took a handoff, ran over right guard (Kawika Mitchell appeared to have a shot at him) and scored the touchdown.

The Giants subsequently took possession at their 40-yard line after Stephen Gostkowski's kickoff bounced out of bounds. Toomer's sensational catch on the left sideline - he somehow kept his feet inbounds on a floating pass - advanced the ball 38 yards to the New England 18-yard line. The Giants faced a third-and-five on the 14 when Manning's pass caromed off Smith and into the hands of cornerback Ellis Hobbs.

It was the Giants' first offensive turnover of the postseason. The offense had gone 34 possessions and run 213 plays without turning over the ball. The previous turnover had been in the regular season finale against the Patriots - also an interception by Hobbs of a Manning pass.

Late in the second quarter, the Patriots drove from their own 11 to the Giants' 44-yard line. But Justin Tuck broke threw the line to sack Brady for the second time and forced a fumble that Osi Umenyiora recovered on the New England 49-yard line with 10 seconds to play.

The Giants led at the end of the first quarter, 3-0. It was the first time they led after the opening period in their four Super Bowl appearances. The teams combined for only two possessions in the quarter, a Super Bowl low.

After winning the coin toss and electing to receive, the Giants drove 63 yards in 15 plays and 9:59, a long march that ended with Tynes' 32-yard field goal. It was the longest drive in terms of time consumed in Super Bowl history.

It was also the longest the Giants have held the ball on any possession in their 20-game season. The previous long was a drive that took 8:56 off the clock against Dallas on Nov. 11. That also resulted in a Tynes field goal, from 26 yards. The 15 plays tied for the second-most on a Giants drive this season. Their 95-yard drive against the Cowboys went 16 plays. They also had 15-play series vs. Washington on Dec. 16 and at Tampa Bay in a Wild Card Game on Jan. 6.

Manning completed five of seven passes on the drive, including three of four on third down. Bradshaw picked up another third down with an eight-yard run on which he pushed defensive lineman Ty Warren about five yards.

Manning's nine-yard pass to Smith gave the Giants a first down at the New England 17-yard line. After an incompletion to Burress, Brandon Jacobs lost a yard. Manning's third-down pass to Smith gained four yards. Tynes then opened the scoring with his field goal.

A little more than three hours later, his extra point was the exclamation point on one of the greatest victories in Giants history.

"This is the greatest feeling in professional sports," Burress said. "For us to come out here and win a world championship tonight - nobody gave us a shot. Can somebody give our defense some credit? Those guys were out there playing phenomenal. We just hung in there all game and kept executing, never got down on ourselves. It came down to one play and we made it."

"Nobody thought we could do it," Toomer said. "We did it. We are the world champions. It's the best feeling. Look at the scoreboard. Look at the scoreboard. It hasn't sunk in yet. Our team played great. We beat them."

They sure did. The 2007 Giants are the world champions. Other than them, who would have believed it?