Manning Guides Giants to another Super Bowl Success over the Patriots

By New York Post - Eli Manning's status as a legendary clutch quarterback continues to grow, as does the number of Super Bowl rings in his collection.

Manning led the Giants to their second Super Bowl in four years by engineering a nine-play, 88-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLVI for a 21-17 win over the Patriots.

"I'm proud of our team, we fought hard all season and came out strong," Manning said during the postgame trophy ceremony. He was named the game's MVP.

The Giants did not give the ball back to the Patriots until there were 57 seconds remaining, not enough for Tom Brady to lead a scoring drive of his own.

Brady advanced the ball to the Patriots' own 49, but a Hail Mary attempt was knocked away and the Giants were Super Bowl champions for the fourth time in their team history. It was their second straight Super Bowl win over the Patriots.

Ahmad Bradshaw capped the winning drive with a 6-yard run. The running back tried to put the brakes on before the goal line to leave the Patriots with even less time, but tumbled into the end zone.

Manning started the drive with a masterful 38-yard throw to Mario Manningham, who tiptoed the sideline for an equally impressive catch. Manning would hit four more passes on the drive, dinking-and-dunking his way down the field before Bradshaw punched it in.

"Great game plan, Mario Manningham had a couple of plays on the go route," Manning said. "It was a great job by everybody on the team."

The score gave the Giants their first lead since right before halftime when the Patriots scored a touchdown to go up 10-9. And, after receiving the second-half kick, the Patriots once again marched right down the field to go up 17-9.

"We got to halftime, I said we can play better than this, everyone agreed, the rest is history," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

On the consecutive scoring drives, Brady would connect on 15 consecutive passes, and 16 in a row overall, to break Joe Montana's XXIV mark of 13 in a row. But Brady will have to settle for a record and not a championship, as he was out-dueled again by Manning.

The Patriots took the momentum in the half when they capped a 14-play, 96-yard drive with a four-yard pass from Brady to Danny Woodhead. Brady completed all 10 of his passes on the drive with injured tight end Rob Gronkowski making his first catch of the day on a 20-yard seam route that helped get the Patriots out of the shadow of their end zone.

But it was the Patriots' other tight end, Aaron Hernandez, who helped keep the drive moving with four catches. Woodhead had three himself as Brady used short passes to pick apart the Giants' defense for the first time all evening.

It was in stark contrast to the Patriots' first offensive drive of the game, which ended after one play when Brady was pressured by Giants defensive end Justin Tuck and forced to throw the ball away from his own end zone. The referees conferred briefly before agreeing it was intentional grounding, and calling a safety to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.

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