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| Eli Manning celebrates another title. |
Now the Giants PR staff can post “Giants: Super Bowl Champions” at the Giants website, since the Ny Giants are world champions for the second one time in five years.
Once again Eli Manning drove the Giants down field inside the final minutes, and yet again Tom Brady came up small within the final seconds because the Giants beat the Patriots 21-17. While this game was not a classic, nor as dramatic as Super Bowl XLII it was still a great victory for huge Blue.
For the Patriots they’ll regret one big play. With New England facing a 2nd and 11 on the Giants 44, Brady had Wes Welker wide open for a primary down on the Giants 20, however the usually sure-handed receiver dropped the pass, forcing a 3rd down. Brady then, threw another incompletion on third down forcing New England to punt.
At that time, Manning took full control. Inside the building that his brother Peyton built, Eli Manning proved that he’s indeed among the elite quarterbacks on this league. On first and ten on the Giants own 12 yard line, Manning rolled to his left and located Mario Manningham streaking down the sideline, heavily covered by two corners. Manningham made the catch down the sideline, keeping both feet in bounds for the primary down near midfield.
Later, Manning him Manningham again, this time for 16 yards; then he found Hakeem Nicks for 14 more on the Patriots 18. With the clock ticking down, the Patriots decided to let the Giants score, as Ahmad Bradshaw went backwards into the top zone for the score to offer Big Blue a 21-17 lead.
The strategy for brand spanking new England was much like that of the fairway Bay Packers back in Super Bowl XXXII, allow your opponent to attain, and provides yourself time to comeback and score. Only problem was the Patriots forgot that the Packers lost a game with that strategy. Brady had Deion Branch and Aaron Hernandez open but all of them dropped passes, before Brady was sacked forcing a fourth down. Brady completed his next pass to Branch for a primary down, but after that, time was running out on New England. Three straight incompletions, including a desperation throw into the tip zone cost the Patriots any hope of victory, because the Giants hung on to win.
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| Tom Brady walks off in defeat, again. |
For the Giants they opened this game very fast, grabbing a 9-0 lead, due to a unusual safety call on intentional grounding, and a Manning touchdown to Victor Cruz. While the Giants offense went right into a virtual funk for a smarter portion of the sport, managing only two field goals, the Giants defense did an outstanding job keeping the sport nearby at 17-15.
The Giants defense sacked Brady twice, and so they never allowed the quarterback to make big plays to his tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Even Branch, Ochocinco and Welker had quiet days for the Patriots. While it wasn’t the type of performance we’ve seen from the Giants of their previous Super Bowl in contrast Patriots team, it was still an excellent effort by this unit.
The win now changes the legacies of Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning. Much maligned by Giants fans who booed and heckled both throughout their careers in Ny, they’ve got two Super Bowl rings on their resumes. Coughlin, now you can argue, is a Hall of Fame coach. He created an outstanding team in Jacksonville, and led the Giants to 2 miraculous Super Bowl runs.
As for Manning, he’s only recuperating. He was very solid for the Giants, completing 75 percent of his passes, for 296 yards. He was deadly accurate along with his throws, threading the needle inside the game, and was completely poised. While he won’t have the numbers his brother does, he has yet another Super Bowl ring than Peyton, and you can argue is without doubt one of the best fourth quarter quarterbacks in football today.
Giants fans who’ve called for the heads of either one of these men, should keep their mouths shut and thank them for bringing them two Super Bowl titles.
So now all of the die-hard Giants fans, and bandwagon hoppers can jump inside the streets because the Giants are World Champions. The parade may be Tuesday in Ny city.
