Eli Manning, Gigantes no dejan Super Bowl colarse entre los dedos

Manning earns MVP award in New York’s 21-17 win after leading late drive to the winning TD against Patriots for the second time in last five Super Bowls. A long pass to Mario Manningham is key play.

Reporting from Indianapolis — His older brother built this house.

Domingo, Eli Manning raised the roof.

The sleepy-eyed New York Giants quarterback woke the past, beating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in four years — a 21-17 victory at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Fotos: Patriots vs. Giants
En el 2008 juego, the signature play was an against-all-odds completion to David Tyree, who pinned the ball to his helmet as he fell to the ground, a catch that set up the winning touchdown in the final minute.

This time, la recepción de la frotación-tus-ojos era un 38 yardas dejó caer en las manos de Mario Manningham en la primera jugada de la unidad a otro TD ganador de último minuto. Venció a dos defensas y acaba de conseguir sus pies en antes de caer fuera de los límites. La obra se impugnó, sin éxito por los Patriotas.

“Sabía que tan pronto como la pelota pegó en mis dedos, Iba a tener que congelar mis pies,” Manningham dijo. “Yo como que sabía que era pulg”

El touchdown decisivo fue una de seis yardas dirigido por el centro Ahmad Bradshaw con 57 segundos para jugar. Los Patriots le permitió anotar a fin de recuperar el balón en las manos de Tom Brady para una oportunidad más.

Bradshaw intentó detener justo antes de la línea de gol por lo que los Giants - que perdían 17-15 and needed only a field goal to win — could use more of the clock, but his momentum carried him and he tumbled backward into the end zone.

Brady, who was going for his fourth ring, took possession with 57 seconds left after a touchback on the kickoff, and got his team to midfield, but his Hail Mary heave on the final play fell incomplete.

“We fought to the end,” Brady said. “I’m very proud of that. We just came up a little short.

“It always comes down to one or two plays in this game. If you make it, you’re celebrating. If you don’t, you don’t sleep for a week.”

Una vez más, Manning was named the game’s most valuable player, after completing 30 de 40 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown on the same field where his older brother Peyton, a four-time NFL MVP, has orchestrated so many victories for the Indianapolis Colts.

“It just feels good to win a Super Bowl,” said Eli, who now has two championship rings to Peyton’s one. “It doesn’t matter where you are, what stadium.”

Not so long ago, the Giants appeared worlds away from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. They pulled out of a tailspin that had dropped their record to 7-7, beat Dallas in a do-or-die finale, then in the playoffs became just the second team in league history to get to the Super Bowl by beating three teams with better records.

“Quite frankly, I felt pretty good about our team the whole time,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. “I know on the outside there was a lot of typical stuff going on. You lose a game in New York you’re fired, burned at the stake or whatever. But I didn’t pay a lot of attention to that.”

Ahora, his team is the first Super Bowl champion to have entered the playoffs with nine wins since the league switched to a 16-game schedule, the first to have been outscored in the regular season, and the first to win it all after weathering a four-game losing streak.

“¡Ay, hombre, what a game!” said Steve Tisch, co-owner of the Giants. “I thought four years ago was exciting. That was a dress rehearsal. This was one of the greatest football games I’ve ever seen.”

It was also a spectacular display of pinpoint passing on both sides, with both Manning and Brady setting Super Bowl records with their precision. Manning set one by completing his first nine passes, and later Brady connected on 16 in a row, also a Super Bowl record.

Brady rompió el récord de Joe Montana con esa racha, pero no pudo igualar los cuatro anillos de campeón de Montana de San Francisco y de Pittsburgh Terry Bradshaw. Los Patriots, que eran los favoritos de tres puntos, son 3-2 en Super Bowls con Brady como mariscal de campo.

Los Patriots fueron en gran parte sin una de sus armas ofensivas más peligrosas. Rob Gronkowski, quien estableció un récord de la NFL para alas cerradas en esta temporada con 17 recepciones de touchdown, fue cojeando durante toda la semana pasada por un esguince en el tobillo que sufrió en el juego de campeonato de la AFC. Él fue capaz de jugar el domingo, pero en su mayor parte no era mucho de un factor; terminó con dos recepciones para 26 yardas.

Todavía, Nueva Inglaterra venció a uno de los primeros 9-0 déficit de puntuación 17 puntos sin respuesta en el segundo y tercer trimestres.

Perdiendo, 17-9, a mediados del tercer trimestre, los Gigantes cavó gradualmente su manera de salir del hoyo con dos goles de campo de Lawrence Tynes y un touchdown por Ahmad Bradshaw. Mientras tanto, su defensa de Nueva Inglaterra mantuvo fuera del marcador para el último 26 acta 20 segundo, después de Brady había conducido a los Patriots a un touchdown en la primera serie después del medio tiempo.

“Jugamos inteligente,” dijo Manning, cuya temporada estuvo marcada por repetidas reapariciones del cuarto trimestre. “Allí, al final, cuando tuvimos la oportunidad en el cuarto trimestre, que habíamos estado en esas situaciones y sabíamos que no teníamos más tiempo que queda. Tuvimos que ir abajo y marcamos, y los chicos intensificaron e hicieron grandes jugadas.”

A lo largo de, Manning era constante - con ver a su familia en una suite de lujo y la celebración de su aliento colectivo en todas las jugadas.

“Él sólo aguantó,” dijo el padre de Eli, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning. “He was patient, and he had to be patient. He was sacked some early, and it wasn’t easy. There wasn’t anything easy out there. He played like a quarterback needs to play.”

The game was a fitting bookend to a Giants season that began with Eli answering in a radio interview that, sí, he belonged in a class with Brady among the NFL elite. It wasn’t a particularly cocky answer, but it raised eyebrows around the league and had some people ridiculing Manning.

Domingo, he wasn’t in Brady’s class.

Manning was a cut above.

Fuente: LA. Tiempos