Plaxico Burress made a bold prediction. 23-17. He claimed the Giants would beat the Patriots. And he was right. He caught the game winning touchdown from Eli Manning, the MVP, to seal the win. And the Giants D came up big with a stop to seal the victory 17-14.The mighty Patriots have fallen. a 18-1 season is nothing to be ashamed about, but they were outplayed by the same Giant team that they beat in the regular season. It was a defensive struggle all the way. The Giants used blitzes to get to Patriots QB Tom Brady, sacking him 5 times while hurrying and hitting him numerous other times. Randy Moss was pretty much shut down. The record breaking WR only had 5 catches for 62 yards but scored what looked like a game winning TD with just over 6 minutes left. Wes Welker had a Super Bowl tying 11 catches for 103 yards. It was eerily similar to Deion Branch in 2004.
Eli Manning showed his true grit in this game. He threw for 2 TD's and one INT, the first of the playoffs for him. His hail mary pass to David Tyree set up Burress' TD catch. In a play that looked doomed, Manning escaped pressure from the whole Pats DL/LB and lofted a pass that Tyree went up for and came down with. Pats S Rodney Harrison tried to knock the ball away but to no avail.
Give the Giants all the credit in the world. They went into the playoff as the number 5 seed. They beat three division winners on the road and then in the biggest game of the year against what might have been the most explosive offense in NFL history, shut them down. They were held to less than 300 total yards. Quite a feat.
Congrats to the Giants...winner of the 2008 NFL Super Bowl.
