Notes and statistics from the Giants' thrilling 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.
*The Giants won the Super Bowl for the fourth time, tying the Green Bay Packers for the fourth-highest total of Super Bowl wins. Pittsburgh has won six; San Francisco and Dallas have won five. The Giants won the eighth championship in the 87-year history of the franchise. Only Green Bay (13) and Chicago (nine) have won more titles.
*The Giants are 4-1 in Super Bowls. Their last three Super Bowl victories were by a total of eight points (20-19 over Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV, 17-14 over New England in Super Bowl XLII and 21-17 over the Patriots again in Super Bowl XLVI).
Game Date Opponent Site Result
Super Bowl XXI Jan. 25, 1987 Denver Broncos Pasadena Won, 39-20
Super Bowl XXV Jan. 27, 1991 Buffalo Bills Tampa Won, 20-19
Super Bowl XXXV Jan. 28, 2001 Baltimore Ravens Tampa Lost, 34-7
Super Bowl XLII Feb. 3, 2008 New England Patriots Phoenix Won, 17-14
Super Bowl XLVI Feb. 5, 2012 New England Patriots Indianapolis Won, 21-17
*The Giants' .800 winning percentage in Super Bowls ties Green Bay (4-1) as the second-highest among franchises that have played at least five Super Bowls. San Francisco is 5-0.
*The Giants are the 10th franchise to play in at least five Super Bowls, joining San Francisco, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Dallas, the Raiders, Washington, New England, Miami and Denver.
*The Giants are 4-0 in Super Bowls vs. opponents they faced in the regular season (beating Denver, Buffalo and New England twice) and 0-1 when facing a Super Bowl foe they did not play that season (Baltimore). The Giants defeated the Patriots in Foxboro, 24-20, on Nov. 6.
*This was the 13th Super Bowl that was a rematch of a regular season game. The teams winning the first game are 6-7 in the Super Bowl. Teams that won on the road in the regular season are 3-4 in the Super Bowl. This is the first Super Bowl rematch since the Giants and Patriots met in Super Bowl XLII.
*The Giants are the first team to win a Super Bowl after…
Losing seven games in the regular season (the Giants were 9-7).
Losing four consecutive games in the regular season.
Finishing with a negative scoring differential (394-400) in the regular season.
Finishing last in the NFL in rushing in the regular season.
*The Giants' regular season winning percentage of .562 is the lowest ever by an NFL champion. The previous low was set by the 1934 Giants, who were 8-5 (.615) before defeating Chicago in the famous "Sneakers Game." The only other teams to reach the Super Bowl with 9-7 records were the 1979 Los Angeles Rams and the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, who lost the Super Bowl.
*The Giants won their seventh consecutive postseason games away from home, extending their NFL record.
*Only three teams have won a Super Bowl with a regular season home record that was .500 or worse and the Giants have done it twice. They were 4-4 at home this season. In 2007, they were 3-5 at home and were the first – and still only – team to advance to the Super Bowl with a sub-.500 record at home. That team beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The 1988 San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XXIII finishing 4-4 at home.
*In their four postseason victories, the Giants defeated 10-6 Atlanta, 15-1 Green Bay, 13-3 San Francisco and 13-3 New England to become the first team to beat four teams in the playoffs with better regular season records.
*The Giants are the first franchise to win Super Bowls in four consecutive decades. They won Super Bowl XXI following the 1986 season, Super Bowl XXV in 1990 and Super Bowl XLII in 2007. They are also the first franchise to win Super Bowls in four decades overall (not just consecutive decades) if the determining factor is the season in which the titles were won. Pittsburgh won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, though the last of those games was actually played on Jan. 20, 1980. They didn't win again until 2005. Dallas won twice in the 70s and thrice in the 90s, San Francisco four times in the 80s and once in the 90s.
*Ahmad Bradshaw scored the game-winning touchdown on a six-yard run with 57 seconds left. This was the fourth time in Super Bowl history the winning touchdown has been scored in the final minute, and two have involved the Giants and Patriots. Three have come in the last five Super Bowls:
Super Bowl Teams Game-Winner
XXIII San Francisco over Cincinnati Montana to Taylor, 10-yard pass, :34 left
XLII Giants over New England Manning to Burress, 13-yard pass, :35 left
XLIII Pittsburgh over Arizona Roethlisberger to Holmes, 6-yd pass, :35 left
XLVI Giants over New England Bradshaw 6-yard run, :57 left
*The Giants trailed at halftime, 10-9. They have not led at the half in any of their five Super Bowls. They also trailed 10-9 at the half in Super Bowl XXI against Denver. They won that game, 39-20.
- This was the fourth time there was a 4 win disparity between opposing teams in the Super Bowl. The team with the lower victory total has won three of the four, including two by the Giants.
1967 Oakland (13-1) Green Bay (9-4-1) Green Bay, 33-14
1985 Chicago (15-1) New England (11-5) Chicago, 46-10
2007 New England (16-0) Giants (10-6) Giants, 17-14
2011 New England (13-3) Giants (9-7) Giants, 21-17
*The Giants outgained the Patriots, 396-349. Teams with the most total yards are 37-9 in Super Bowls.
*The Giants had a huge advantage in time of possession, 37:05-22:55.
*The Giants were the 16th team to have no turnovers in a Super Bowl. Each of the last three Super Bowl winners – New Orleans, Green Bay and the Giants – did not have a turnover.
*The Giants have won their last 10 games (eight regular season, two postseason) in which they did not turn the ball over. They had just one turnover in four postseason games. The Giants did not lose a fumble in their last eight games (Hakeem Nicks and Bradshaw each fumbled in the Super Bowl, but the balls were recovered by Henry Hynoski and Chris Snee, respectively.
*The Giants forced one turnover, Chase Blackburn's fourth-quarter interception of a Brady pass. The Giants now have a turnover differential of minus-three in their five Super Bowls. Super Bowl teams with fewer turnovers than their opponents are 34-3.
*The Giants are 6-0 in postseason games in which Eli Manning does not throw an interception.
*Tom Coughlin improved to 2-0 in Super Bowls as a head coach. He is the 13th coach to win multiple Super Bowls. He is one of 18 coaches with a perfect Super Bowl record.
*Coughlin improved to 12-7 as a head coach in postseason games, including 8-3 with the Giants. The 12 victories tie him with former Pittsburgh Coach Bill Cowher for the sixth-highest total in NFL history:
Coaches Postseason Victories:
20: Tom Landry
19: Don Shula
17: Bill Belichick, Joe Gibbs
16: Chuck Noll
13: Mike Holmgren
12: Tom Coughlin, Bill Cowher
11: Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Marv Levy
Coughlin and Belichick are the only two active coaches on the list.
*Coughlin with the Giants: Eight seasons, five postseason appearances, 8-3 record, 2-0 in Super Bowls. Parcells with the Giants: Eight seasons, five postseason appearances, 8-3 record, 2-0 in the Super Bowl.
*Coughlin has nine postseason victories away from home - seven on the seventh and two neutral site Super Bowls. Seven of those victories were with the Giants in 2007 and this season.
*Coughlin is 7-3 in postseason games against teams he faced in the regular season, including victories over Green Bay, San Francisco and New England this season.|
*The victory was the 154th in Coughlin's career - 142 regular season and 12 postseason. That ties him with Hall of Famer Marv Levy for 17th on the NFL's career list.
*Coughlin was 65 years 158 days old on Sunday, making him the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl and the second-oldest to guide his team to the title game. Buffalo's Marv Levy was 68 years old when he coached the last of his four Super Bowls in January 1993.
Oldest head coaches to win a Super Bowl:
Name Team Super Bowl Years Days
Tom Coughlin Giants XLVI 65 158
Dick Vermeil St. Louis XXXIV 63 92
Weeb Ewbank Jets III 61 251
Tom Coughlin Giants XLII 61 156*Eli Manning was voted the winner of the Pete Rozelle Trophy, awarded to the Super Bowl XLVI Most Valuable Player. It was his second Super Bowl MVP Award.
*Manning hit nine different targets while completing 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards – all Giants Super Bowl records – one touchdown and no interceptions, a passer rating of 103.8. In the Giants' four-game postseason, he hit 106 of 163 passes (.650) for 1,219 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception. Manning rallied the Giants from a 17-9 third-quarter deficit while leading scoring drives on three of the team's four second-half possessions.
*Manning completed his first nine passes, a record for consecutive completions to begin a Super Bowl.
*Manning is the first Giants player to win the Rozelle Trophy multiple times, having also been voted the MVP of Super Bowl XLII. Previous Giants Super Bowl MVPs include quarterback Phil Simms (Super Bowl XXI), running back Ottis Anderson (Super Bowl XXV) and Manning (Super Bowl XLII).
*Manning is the fifth player in NFL history to win multiple Super Bowl MVP honors (Joe Montana, three; Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw and Bart Starr, two).
*Manning is 8-3 as a starting quarterback in the postseason, 2-0 in the Super Bowl.
*Manning and Brady were the starting quarterbacks in Super Bowl XLVI, as they were four years ago. It was the third starting quarterback rematch in Super Bowl history and each one has resulted in a sweep. Terry Bradshaw and Pittsburgh defeated Roger Staubach and Dallas in Super Bowls X and XIII and Troy Aikman and Dallas beat Jim Kelly and Buffalo in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII.
*Super Bowl XLVI was the first Super Bowl in which both starting quarterbacks had won a Super Bowl MVP award.
*Manning is one of 19 quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl without losing one.
*Manning is the 11th quarterback to win at least two Super Bowls.
*Manning is one of seven quarterbacks taken with the first overall selection in the NFL Draft to start a Super Bowl. The others are Terry Bradshaw (4-0 in Super Bowls), Jim Plunkett (2-0), John Elway (2-3), Troy Aikman (3-0), Drew Bledsoe (0-1) and Peyton Manning (1-0). The former No. 1 choices are 14-4 in Super Bowls.
*Manning was the first quarterback to start two Super Bowls for the Giants. In their first four Super Bowls, four different quarterbacks started for the Giants. The others were Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler and Kerry Collins. The Giants were the first team to start a different quarterback in each of their first four Super Bowls. Only two other teams have started four different quarterbacks in a Super Bowl, though not in the franchise's first four games. The Raiders have started Daryle Lamonica, Ken Stabler, Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon. Washington's four Super Bowl quarterbacks were Billy Kilmer, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.
*Manning is the only quarterback to wear No. 10 and win a Super Bowl. The only other starting quarterback to wear No. 10 in a Super Bowl was Minnesota's Fran Tarkenton in Super Bowls VIII, IX and XI.
*Hakeem Nicks led the Giants with 10 receptions for 109 yards, both Giants Super Bowl records.
*Mario Manningham had five receptions for 73 yards, including the longest and biggest of the game, a 38-yarder down the left sideline to start the game-winning drive.
*Bear Pascoe caught four passes for 33 yards and Victor Cruz had four for 25, including a two-yard touchdown that was his first score of the postseason.
*Bradshaw led the Giants with 72 rushing yards on 17 carries, including the game-winning six-yard touchdown with 57 seconds remaining. He is the first player to rush for a game-winning touchdown in the final minute of a Super Bowl.
*Bradshaw is the fourth player to score the game-winning touchdown in the last minute of a Super Bowl, joining John Taylor (Super Bowl XXIII), the Giants' Plaxico Burress (Super Bowl XLII) and Santonio Holmes (Super Bowl XLIII).
*Steve and Zak DeOssie are one of 13 father-son tandems to reach the Super Bowl, but the only one to win Super Bowls with the same team. Steve won with the Giants in Super Bowl XXV and Zak has now won with the Giants in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
*The Giants took a 2-0 lead in the first quarter when Brady was penalized for intentional grounding on the Patriots' first offensive play. Brady was under pressure from Justin Tuck when he threw the ball far down the field to avoid a sack. No Patriots were near the pass's landing point.
It as was the seventh safety in Super Bowl history and the Giants have been involved in three of them of them. George Martin sacked John Elway in the end zone in Super Bowl XXI and Buffalo's Bruce Smith did the same to Jeff Hostetler in Super Bowl XXV. The most recent Super Bowl safety had occurred in Super Bowl XLIII, when Pittsburgh's Justin Hartwig was penalized for holding in the end zone.
It was the second time in Super Bowl history the first score was a safety. It also happened in Super Bowl IX, when the safety was credited to Pittsburgh's Dwight White.
The safety was the third of the Giants' 20-game season. On Dec. 11 in Dallas, Jason Pierre-Paul tackled Tony Romo, who stumbled into the end zone and fell and Chris Canty sacked the Jets' Mark Sanchez for a safety on Dec. 24.
*Tight end Travis Beckum suffered a torn ACL in the second quarter. Another tight end, Jake Ballard, suffered a knee injury in the third quarter.
*The Patriots scored a touchdown just prior to halftime on a 96-yard drive that was tied with two others for the longest in Super Bowl history. It was the longest drive in terms of yardage allowed by the Giants since, ironically, the last time they played in Indianapolis. On Sept. 19, 2010, the Colts scored on a 98-yard drive. It was the longest drive given up by the Giants in the postseason since Dallas had a 96-yard march in an NFC Divisional Playoff Game on Jan. 13, 2008. The longest drive allowed by the Giants this year was 95 yards vs. the Cowboys on Jan. 1.
*The NFC holds a 26-20 lead over the AFC in Super Bowls.
*The Patriots won the coin toss, the first such success for an AFC team in the Super Bowl since the New England won the toss in Super Bowl XXXI. The NFC team had won the coin toss in each of the previous 14 Super Bowls. The Patriots became the third team in Super Bowl history to defer its choice, joining the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII and Green Bay last year. The team winning the coin toss is 22-24 all-time in the Super Bowl.
*Brady set a Super Bowl record by completing 16 consecutive passes.
*This was the 48th postseason game in Giants history. That is third-most in NFL history, behind Dallas (58 postseason games) and Pittsburgh (53). The Giants evened their postseason record at 24-24.
*The NFC is now 10-4 in Super Bowls played indoors, including the Giants' victory over New England three years ago and Green Bay's triumph over Pittsburgh last year in Dallas. The Giants are 27-16 playing in domes in the regular season, plus 2-0 in Super Bowls. They are 10-4 under Coughlin in regular season indoor games, plus the Super Bowls. The Giants have won five of their last six indoor games.
*Eight former Giants assistant coaches have led teams to Super Bowls as head coaches: Six of the eight have won at least one Super Bowl. Former Giants coaches are 12-6 as head coaches in Super Bowls.
Name Giants Assistant Team, Super Bowl(s)
Bill Belichick 1979-90 New England: XXXI, XXXVIII, XXXIX
Tom Coughlin 1988-90 Giants: XLII, XLVI
Jim Fassel 1991-92 Giants: XXXV
John Fox 1997-2001 Carolina: XXXVIII
Tom Landry 1954-59 Dallas: V, VI, X, XII, XIII
Vince Lombardi 1954-58 Green Bay: I, II
Bill Parcells 1979, 1981-82 Giants: XXI, XXV; Patriots XXXI
Sean Payton 1999-2002 New Orleans: XLIV
*Steve Weatherford set a Super Bowl record with three punts downed inside the 20-yard line.
*Manning, Brandon Jacobs, Chris Snee, David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie all played in their 11th Giants postseason game, which tied them with Cark Banks, Leonard Marshall, Bart Oates, Gary Reasons, William Roberts, Amani Toomer and Perry Williams for the second-highest total in franchise history.
Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora each played in their 10th postseason game for the Giants, tying them with Michael Strahan and Phil Simms for the third-highest total in franchise history.
Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor holds the franchise record with 15 postseason games.
*The Giants' inactive players for the Super Bowl are linebacker Mark Herzlich, wide receiver Ramses Barden, running back Da'Rel Scott, offensive linemen Jim Cordle and James Brewer and defensive linemen Jimmy Kennedy and Justin Trattou.
*The Giants had 15 players suit up Sunday who also played in Super Bowl XLII.
Eli Manning, Chris Snee, David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie started on offense. Brandon Jacobs, a starter them, was a reserve in Super Bowl XLVI. Current starters Ahmad Bradshaw and Kevin Boothe were backups four years ago.
Osi Umenyiora, Aaron Ross and Corey Webster are the only defensive starters remaining. Justin Tuck and Chase Blackburn, reserves then, started vs. the Patriots. Dave Tollefson was a backup hen and now.
Kicker Lawrence Tynes and long snapper Zak DeOssie (who then handled only the punt snaps because Jay Alford did the placekicks) are still in their respective positions.
Running back D.J. Ware was on the roster but was inactive for Super Bowl XLII. He had a six-yard carry and an eight-yard reception on Sunday.
Four Giants who lost Super Bowls with other teams won their first titles with the Giants: Rocky Bernard with Seattle in 2005, Deon Grant with Carolina in 2003, Antrel Rolle with Arizona in 2008 and Tony Ugoh with Indianapolis in 2009.
For more exclusive coverage, follow the Giants on Twitter and LIKE US the Giants on Facebook!
