New York Daily News
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Plaxico Burress backed up his guarantee with a game-winning grab.
GLENDALE, Ariz. - It really ended in the left corner of the end zone at University of Phoenix Stadium, and the ball in the belly of Plaxico Burress, who called this one the way Namath did once. He left Ellis Hobbs, a Patriots defensive back, behind, laid him out the way the Giants had been laying out the history the New England Patriots were supposed to make. Eli Manning delivered that ball, delivered it the way the greatest Super Bowl quarterbacks have delivered the ball in endings like this in the big game, the way Joe Montana and all the others did. And this wasn't just the ending to one of the best Super Bowls you will ever see. It was the ending to as good a football story as has ever been written, by any team in any year.
It was 17-14 for the Giants against the Patriots, and the Patriots weren't going to be 19-0 and Tom Brady wasn't going to have enough time to drive his team down the field one last time the way the kid, Eli Manning, just had. Eli and the Giants were underdogs yesterday the way they have been for the month, and that couldn't stop them because no one did, not in a month of football, a month of sports in the city of New York, that now goes with anything the city has ever seen.
And as beautiful as that last throw was, as much of a money play it was for a kid who is now a money quarterback forever, it wasn't the play that will be remembered from this day by Eli Manning, because the play that will be remembered is the one you had to see to believe in that last drive. That is the one where they had him sacked on third down and had his uniform and nearly made him disappear.
Only he was still standing. Like his team was still standing against the Patriots, standing up and standing in there all day long. He got out of the pocket and threw one down the field to David Tyree, who out-jumped an old Patriots safety named Rodney Harrison for the ball. It went for 32 yards and after that, there was this amazing sense in Arizona that as improbable a run as any pro team has ever had was now inevitable, even against 18-0.
Namath shocked the world once for the Jets. Eli Manning did that yesterday. Only he had a better game against the Patriots than Namath had in Super Bowl III, against one of the best teams to ever play. The Giants defense gave the offense of Brady and Moss two touchdowns yesterday. Then Brady, after taking the lead with a TD pass to Randy Moss, made the mistake you can never make with a star quarterback, a championship quarterback:
He gave the kid too much time. The Patriots couldn't sack him the way the Giants kept sacking Brady. They couldn't stop him from getting away on third down and they couldn't stop him from delivering that ball to Plax, who called the thing. There will be other teams in New York, because there always are. There is always another team. This team goes with Namath's Jets now and the '69 Mets, with anything the city has ever seen.
The Giants had said all week that they were going to do what they do, and that meant get after Brady. And that is exactly what they did in the first half. After all the talk about Brady and Eli Manning this week, after all the talk about Spygate and Bill Belichick and Plaxico Burress' predictions, the Giants did get after Brady in Super Bowl XLII, and the one who did that the most in the first half was Justin Tuck. All the talk about the other big names and he was the best player on the field.
The Giants held the ball for nearly 10 minutes right out of the gates, the longest drive - in terms of the clock - in the history of the Super Bowl. But they could not put the ball in the end zone. It was another storyline of the week, how the Patriots knew the Giants could move the ball, but believed they could stop them when they got close. They did that finally, Lawrence Tynes made a 32-yard field goal, and it was 3-0. Should have been more. They had dominated the early innings of this one, and should have been ahead by a touchdown.
The Patriots came back on them, getting a start-me-up kickoff return from Laurence Maroney out to the New England 44. And it was not the prettiest Patriots drive after that, or the most efficient, but Brady took them down the field and they were helped out by a huge third-down pass interference call against Antonio Pierece in the end zone (guarding Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson). In the opening seconds of the second quarter, Maroney ran it in, and the Patriots were ahead now in the Super Bowl. But they couldn't get back ahead until late in the fourth quarter, Brady to Moss. Because the Giants did what they did. They chased him all the way to 18-1.
"It doesn't matter whether you're a second- or third-year player or if you'e a 10-year vet," Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said this week. "Nobody likes pressure."
Brady took his team down the field when he had to. But he left Eli too much time. The kid took his team down the field, the way Joe Montana did that time against the Bengals in Miami, when he finally hit John Taylor. The Patriots couldn't take him out. They couldn't stop him. It wasn't their day. It was his, his and that amazing defense. There will be other teams in New York. Never better than this team. Never a better sports story in New York than this.
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