XPost: alt.sports.football.pro.oak-raiders, alt.sports.football.pro

Tom Brady got treated like any other quarterback the entire game and
couldn't put up when it counted.

Great players overcome difficulty.

Tom Brady couldn't do it and got soundly beaten.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Elite and Eli. One and the same.

And now there are two Super Bowl championships and two MVPs to prove it.

Eli Manning is the big man in the NFL after one-upping Tom Brady and
leading the New York Giants to a 21-17 victory over the New England
Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl - in older brother Peyton's house, at
that.

``This isn't about one person,'' Manning insisted. ``This is about a team coming together.''

A team led by a quarterback who months ago claimed - to snickers
throughout the league - that he belonged in the same stratosphere as
Brady, and then proved it.

Just as Manning did four years ago when the Giants ruined New England's
perfect season, he guided them 88 yards to the decisive touchdown, which
the Patriots didn't contest as Ahmad Bradshaw ran 6 yards with 57 seconds
left.

``Certainly Eli has had a great season. He made some great throws in the
fourth quarter, and they deserved to win,'' Brady said.

They got some help from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose late-game
risk didn't turn out as he planned. Belichick reasoned the Giants would
run the clock down and kick a short field goal, so he gambled by allowing
the six points.

The ploy failed.

``Ball was inside the 10-yard line, a 90 percent field goal conversion,''
he said. ``Sure, could have done a better job in a lot of things.''

Manning did everything asked of him in the final minutes, a habit for the eight-year veteran. He's beaten the Patriots in two thrilling Super Bowls.
The Giants (13-7), who stood 7-7 in mid-December, now own the football
world, and Manning owns two Super Bowl MVP awards, the same number as
Brady.

It was a classic I-can-top-that showdown with the outcome in doubt until
the last desperation pass fell to the turf as the last second ticked off
the clock. Manning started the game with nine straight completions, a
Super Bowl record; Brady hit 16 straight over the second and third
quarters, breaking Joe Montana's Super bowl record of 13.

Manning finished 30 for 40 for 296 yards and one touchdown, while Brady
was 27 for 41 for 276 yards with two TDs and one interception.

``It's been a wild game, a wild season,'' Manning said.

Manning led six comeback victories during the season and set an NFL record
with 15 fourth-quarter touchdown passes. He showed that brilliance in the clutch on the winning drive, completing five passes, starting with a sensational 38-yard sideline catch by Mario Manningham.

On second down at the Patriots 6 and with only one timeout remaining,
Belichick had his defense stand up as Bradshaw took the handoff. Bradshaw thought about stopping short of the end zone, then tumbled in untouched.

``I was yelling to him, `Don't score, don't score,''' Manning said. ``He
tried to stop, but he fell into the end zone.''

Brady couldn't answer in the final 57 seconds, although his heave into the
end zone on the final play fell just beyond the grasp of lunging All-Pro
tight end Rob Gronkowski. New England (15-4), winner of 10 straight since
a loss to the Giants in November, was done.

Brady headed off with his head bowed, holding his helmet, still one short
of the record four Super Bowl victories by Terry Bradshaw for the
Pittsburgh Steelers and Montana for the San Francisco 49ers.

``Certainly it wasn't one play that was the reason we lost,'' Brady said. ``Everybody feels they could do a little more. I'd rather come to this
game and lose than not get here.''

All around him was the wild celebration by the Giants, NFL champions for
the eighth - and perhaps most unlikely - time.

``Great toughness, great faith and great plays by a number of guys
today,'' Manning said, deflecting some of the attention. Still, he beat
Brady. And he went one better than Peyton, the Indianapolis Colts
quarterback who has one ring of his own but didn't play this season as he recovered from neck surgery.

``It just feels good to win a Super Bowl. It doesn't matter where you
are,'' Manning said.

It was the fifth trip to a Super Bowl for Brady and Belichick, tying the record. And it looked like a successful one when they stormed back from a
9-0 deficit and led 17-9 in the third quarter. But the Giants, who reached
New England territory on every possession except a kneeldown at the end of
the first half, got field goals of 38 and 33 yards from Tynes. And it
looked like Tynes, who kicked them into the Super Bowl four years ago at
Green Bay and again this year at San Francisco, both in overtime, would
get called on again.

Then Belichick, known to try just about anything in a game, took a risk
that didn't pay off.

The Giants are the first Super Bowl winner that was outscored during the regular season. They were 6-2 after that 24-20 victory at New England,
then lost four straight and five of six.

Coach Tom Coughlin insisted ``the prize'' was still within reach. Now the Giants are holding tight to that Vince Lombardi Trophy.

``What I was concerned with was these guys making their own history,''
Coughlin said. ``This is such a wonderful thing, these guys carving their
own history.''

Coughlin got his own piece of the record book as the oldest coach, at 65,
to win a Super Bowl.

It was the Giants' fourth Super Bowl championship, more than any franchise except Pittsburgh with six and San Francisco and Dallas with five, and
they became the first team to finish the regular season 9-7 and win the
title.

New England had the ball for all of one play in the first 11 1-2 minutes,
and that play was an utter failure, a rare poor decision by Brady. After
Steve Weatherford's punt was downed at the New England 6, Brady dropped to
pass in the end zone and had time. With everyone covered and Giants
defensive end Justin Tuck finally coming free to provide pressure, Brady
heaved the ball downfield while still in the pocket.

Only problem: No Patriots receivers were anywhere near the pass. The
Giants were awarded a safety for Brady's grounding in the end zone.

Manning, meanwhile, couldn't have been more on target early, hitting six receivers in the first period. He also was aided by Ahmad Bradshaw, who
hardly looked like a running back with a bad foot. Bradshaw broke a 24-
yard run, and New England made another critical mistake by having 12 men
on the field on a third-and-3 on which the Giants fumbled.

Instead, New York got a first down at the 6, and two plays later Victor
Cruz beat James Ihedigbo on a slant to make it 9-0, prompting Cruz to
break into his signature salsa move.

Manning's first incompletion didn't come until 1:19 into the second
quarter.

At that point, it was 9-3 after Stephen Gostkowski's 29-yard field goal.
The Patriots got to the Giants' 11, but All-Pro DE Jason Pierre-Paul
blocked a third-down pass.

Soon after, when the Patriots had a three-and-out and Pierre-Paul blocked another throw, Belichick and offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had a
quick discussion. Then O'Brien, soon to take over as Penn State coach,
went over to the struggling Brady.

The talk must have helped. On the final series of the opening half, Brady
was masterful. Starting at his 4, and ignoring the last time the Patriots
began a series in the shadow of the end zone, he was vintage Brady.

With New York's vaunted pass rush disappearing, Brady went 10-for-10 for
98 yards, capping the drive that included two Patriots penalties with Woodhead's 4-yard TD reception with 8 seconds to go in the half. Hernandez
and Woodhead each had four catches on the drive that, stunningly, put New England ahead despite being outplayed for so much of the first 30 minutes.

Brady kept firing - and hitting - in the third quarter, with five more completions. The Giants didn't come within shouting distance of the record-setting quarterback. He capped a 79-yard drive to open the second
half with a 12-yard TD to Hernandez, but then the game turned. Again.

Consecutive field goals by Lawrence Tynes of 38 and 33 yards brought New
York within 17-15. Brady then threw deep for his tight end after weaving
away from two pass rushers. His throw was short, and Chase Blackburn
picked it off early in the fourth quarter.

Although the Giants moved into New England territory again, as they did on every drive to that point, they bogged down and punted.

In the end, though, New York made the critical plays, just as it did in
2008. With Manning in the lead.

``Two hundred and twenty-eight countries just saw Eli,'' running back
Brandon Jacobs said. ``I don't have to say anything.''

1st QuarterNE
Safety09:00

(9:00) (Run formation) 77-N.Solder reported in as eligible. 12-T.Brady
pass incomplete deep middle [91-J.Tuck]. PENALTY on NE-12-T.Brady,
Intentional Grounding, 6 yards, enforced in End Zone, SAFETY.

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