“How ’bout them Giants,” Deni Crowley, a sophomore education major, said.
How about them Giants.
The National Football Conference wildcard-winning and 12 point underdog New York Giants rallied late in the fourth quarter to pull off perhaps the biggest upset in Super Bowl history over the nearly undefeated New England Patriots.
And they did it with 11 straight wins away from their home turf.
When all of the post-firework smoke cleared, the champagne was consumed and all of the confetti and streamers were cleaned up, New York left New England in disbelief as head coach Bill Belichick and his team fell just one game short of the perfect season.
“We were stopping the best offense in football,” said Giants defensive end Michael Strahan according to nytimes.com. “We shocked the world.”
New York’s victory over the patriots sparked great amounts of disbelief in viewers.
“I never thought I would see the day that Eli Manning would lead a super bowl winning drive,” sophomore communications major Jason Moran said.
Brian Moran, a sophomore history and political science major, agreed.
“I just didn’t see that happening,” Moran said.
Brett Heller, a sophomore business administration major, said, “I didn’t think the Patriots would blow a season like they had.”
Still another group of fans basked more in the defeat of the Patriots than the victory of the Giants.
“I wanted their only game loss all season to be in the Super Bowl,” Gina Mulranen, a sophomore math secondary education major, said. “I didn’t care who beat them.”
Oddly enough, it was the Giants who were the final prey in the Patriots historic 16th win. But with the loss, the Giants finally found an answer to Tom Brady and his high scoring offense: a monster defensive effort. Former Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Brady was sacked five times and hurried twelve, as he had very little time to make plays the entire game. Ultimately, the Patriots were held to just 14 points.
“They were just more than we could handle tonight,” said Brady, according to NFL.com
With just under three minutes left in the game, Brady led a Patriot go-ahead 80-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard pass to Randy Moss. New England was up 14-10 and the Patriots seemed confident.
“When you are winning with two minutes and 40 seconds left, you are hoping you can pull it out,” Brady said, according to skysports.com.
The Giants responded with some late-game magic of their own, as Manning connected with Plaxico Burress for a 13-yard touchdown with 35 seconds left, which proved to be the game winning score.
“You can’t write a better script. There were so many big plays on that drive,” Manning said, according to NFL.com.
After four failed long passes from Brady, just one second remained on the clock as the Giants took over on downs. Belichick knew he was beat and left the field after congratulating Giants head coach Tom Coughlin before New York’s offense could return to the field to take the final snap.
“They made some plays. We made some plays. In the end, they made a couple more than we did,” said Belichick, according to nytimes.com.
It is ironic that the highest scoring offense in National Football League history would also go on to lose the second lowest scoring super bowl in history.
“Every team is beatable, you never know,” Coughlin said according to nytimes.com. “The right moment, the right time, every team is beatable.”
