New York Giants win Super Bowl 21-17 with late-game drive
ASSOCIATED PRESS February 5, 2012 5:48PM
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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning throws against the New England
Patriots during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game
Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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Updated: February 5, 2012 9:03PM
INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Manning and the Giants scored a last-minute touchdown
to beat the New England Patriots 21-17 Sunday night for New York’s fourth
Super Bowl title.
It was a rematch of the 2008 NFL championship, when Manning led New York
past New England to ruin the Patriots’ bid for a perfect season.
Tom Brady set a Super Bowl record by completing 16 consecutive passes and
capped two long drives with touchdown tosses, helping the New England
Patriots take a 17-15 lead over the New York Giants into the fourth quarter.
After a shaky start that included a safety for intentional grounding in
the end zone on his first play of the game, Brady turned back into Tom
Terrific before a crowd of 68,658.
On New England’s last possession of the first half, Brady went 10 for 10
for 98 yards, including a 4-yard TD pass to Danny Woodhead. And on the
opening drive of the second half, Brady went 5 for 5 for 54 yards, finishing
with a 12-yarder to Aaron Hernandez.
After jogging up to greet Hernandez, Brady used his right finger to tap on
the patch over his heart reading “MHK,” the initials of Patriots owner
Robert Kraft’s late wife, Myra.
All in all on those two drives, Brady was 15 for 15 for 152. Not bad, huh?
Add in one more completion at the start of the streak, and Brady’s 16 in a
row broke the mark of 13 set by his boyhood idol, San Francisco 49ers
quarterback Joe Montana, in the 1990 Super Bowl. Brady’s run ended with a
dump-away incompletion while being flushed out of the pocket with 6:04 left in
the third quarter. On the next play, the Giants sacked Brady for the first
time, with Justin Tuck getting to him.
Already a Super Bowl MVP twice and a champion three times, Brady was
hoping to come out ahead in this rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, when New England
’s bid for a perfect season ended with a 17-14 loss to New York.
This time, Brady got into trouble the first time he touched the ball, when
Tuck applied pressure and Brady threw the ball away deep while standing in
his own end zone.
A penalty for intentional grounding was called, which resulted in the
safety and a 2-0 lead for the Giants. Only one other time in Super Bowl history
did the game’s first score come on a safety, all the way back in 1975,
when the Steelers beat the Vikings.
Little went right for New England at the outset, and New York pulled out
to a 9-0 lead on Eli Manning’s 2-yard TD toss to Victor Cruz, who did his
celebratory salsa dance in the back of the end zone with about 3½ minutes
left in the first quarter.
Manning, the 2008 MVP, is the first quarterback to begin a Super Bowl with
nine consecutive completions, starting Sunday 9 for 9 for 77 yards.
This time, New York ran 19 of the game’s first 20 plays, outgaining New
England 108-0 in yards and holding a time-of-possession edge of 11 minutes,
28 seconds to 8 seconds. New England didn’t get its initial first down until
there were under two minutes left in the opening quarter.
There also was an apparent fumble by the Giants, recovered by the Patriots
— except it was wiped out by a penalty because New England was caught with
12 men on the field, instead of 11.
After New England’s third possession ended with a three-and-out and punt,
head coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien had a
lengthy chat on the sideline, both waving papers around and pointing at the
field. Brady briefly approached, as if to interject an idea or two, but then
appeared to think better of it and went over to a bench, plopping himself
down with teammates.
But eventually, to no one’s surprise, Brady got going — and he did so
before the extended Super Bowl halftime show, which Belichick prepared his
team for by taking a half-hour break during practice last week. “Material Girl”
Madonna was the act for this year’s game.
The drive to end the first half was a masterful 14-play, 96-yarder, tying
two others — in 1986 and 2010 — for the longest in a Super Bowl.
Brady’s pass to Hernandez made it 17-9 early in the second half and ended
a 79-yard drive.
But Lawrence Tynes’ 38-yard field goal pulled New York within 17-12 with
6:43 left in the third quarter, and he added a 33-yarder with 35 seconds to
go in the period.
End of Third Quarter: Giants: 17, Patriots 15
With 57 seconds left in the game, Bradshaw rushed for a 6-yard touchdown.
Giants 21, Patriots 17.
Sunday’s game is a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, when the Giants had an
upset 17-14 win over the Patriots, ending New England’s bid for a perfect
season.
The Patriots (15-3) enter on a 10-game winning streak. Their last loss
came against New York in the regular season, a 24-20 Giants victory on Nov. 6.
The Giants (12-7) have won five consecutive games.
The roof is closed at Lucas Oil Stadium as Indianapolis hosts the NFL
championship game for the first time, with an expected U.S. TV audience
exceeding 100 million.
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