This is to anyone that is a New York Giants fan. You never have to win another game in your lifetime to backup the victory you celebrated last night. The Giants shocking 17-14 win over the three-time champion, New England Patriots, will simply go down as one of the greatest upset victories of all time. The Giants incredible march through the playoffs probably will go down as the greatest Cinderella story ever.So how the hell did this happen? Well, the Giants defense was simply spectacular! They got to Tom Brady time after time after time. Again their pass rush covered up some of their holes in their secondary. Justin Tuck or Michael Strahan probably would have been named Super Bowl MVP prior to the Manning drive because they were that good. Even the secondary was great in making plays. Corey Webster tapping the ball away from Randy Moss in the closing seconds was tremendous. They held the NFL's best offense ever to a mere 14 points and just over 200 yards for the entire game. That is an all-time effort by the Giants defense.
Eli Manning was great when he had to be as well. Engineering that final drive was a thing of beauty. He did dodge a bullet when Asante Samuel couldn't grab an interception, but his scramble on that 3rd and 5 play will be shown forever. Then, of course, the grab by David Tyree. Where did Tyree come from? He has been a big disappointment for the Giants since he was a highly touted youngster four, five years ago. What a catch that was! Eli took a page out of Joe Montana's biography and engineered the same exact type of drive Montana did in Super Bowl XXIII. And what an effort all year by Plaxico Burress. Whether you like him or not, he played hurt all year and came up with the game-winning touchdown.
Two sequences really stood out to me and told me the stars were aligning for the Giants last night. In the 2nd quarter, Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled and it was clearly recovered by a Patriot. However, Bradshaw stripped it away before possession was ruled. Even though the Giants ultimately punted, that disallowed the Pats from taking over at the Giants' 25. The other was the Giants defense coming up huge after the 12-men on the field penalty on a Pats 4th down. That gave the Pats a first down inside the Giants' 40 with what I thought a prime opportunity to take a 14-3 lead. A touchdown there changes the game. The Pats probably win. Instead the Giants come up huge and force the Pats into either a 50-yard field goal or a 4th and 13. They went on 4th and 13 and came away with no points. Both those sequences were very telling.
In any event, this is a tremendous, tremendous win for the New York Giants and their fans. Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning have gone from the ultimate goats to the ultimate New York heroes in just six weeks! SIX WEEKS! You can't under sell how big a win this is. Like I said, Giants fans never need to see the playoffs again because you just had the ultimate win. It does NOT get any better than what you had last night. No way, no how! Enjoy it! I am one very jealous New York Jets fan this morning.
Pat Morgan
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