INDIANAPOLIS -- INDIANAPOLIS This was the right ending, the perfect ending really. This was Eli Manning waiting until the final drive of the season to give his team another comeback win, which is basically the script he and the New York Giants followed all year and seemingly follow every time they win Super Bowls.
This was Manning, the man who threw 15 fourth-quarter touchdowns during the regular year, seemingly waiting until the drama had risen to oxygen-stealing heights and then calmly and with a ton of cool, moving his team 88 yards for the winning touchdown with only 3:46 to play.
Against the Patriots.
Against the blitz.
Against the odds.
“We said we have to score a touchdown right here,” Manning said after New York’s 21-17 victory. “We’ll be happy with a field goal, too. We had to go down and score, and guys stepped up and made great plays.”
They got the touchdown.
And Manning got the MVP award for the second time.
Manning completed nine consecutive passes to start Super Bowl XLVI and that had never been done in this game’s history, but it’s how this guy finishes that has been so stirring.
Simply, Manning is the NFL’s best closer. The guy works in the same city as New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, but the truth is Manning lately finishes better than Big Mo.
Manning this season authored six fourth-quarter or overtime game-winning drives, the most of any quarterback in the NFL. The half-dozen feats of heroism also represent the most comeback wins by a Giant since 1970.
Best for last
“We’ve had a bunch of them this year,” Manning said in a typical aw-shucks fashion that belies the fact he’s a late-game assassin.
But he saved his best comeback, his seventh comeback, for the biggest stage in American sports. It included a 38-yard completion on first down from the 12-yard line, a play not even New England coach Bill Belichick believed because he flagged it for a replay.
The replay showed the same thing the real-time action showed: That Manning pinpointed a sideline pass really the only place it could go, over the head of a defender, timed just right to Mario Manningham who cooperated with a fine catch.
“A big-time play right there,” Manning said.
“Eli put a great ball out there and after that it gave you a lot of confidence,” Manningham said. “I kind of figured, ‘We’re about to win this thing.’ That’s how things operate around here, man.”
Manning followed with a 16-yard completion on second down. And the 14-yard completion two plays later.
So efficient was The Closer that what initially felt like a desperation drive had to slow down because, well, on the other sideline New England quarterback Tom Brady has a reputation for finishing well also.
And Manning didn’t want to give Brady time for a comeback of his own.
Manning’s magic
The last time Manning worked this kind of magic in a Super Bowl, he victimized the Patriots with a drive that gave Brady only a handful of seconds to respond. The Pats wanted nothing to do with that kind of finish.
So they just laid down.
That’s right. The Patriots gave the Giants their winning touchdown with 57 seconds to play when Ahmad Bradshaw walked past a defense that offered no resistance on purpose from New England’s defenders.
Yes, they were waving the white flag because Manning had carved them up as effectively as he had four years ago. He took his team 88 yards in only 2:49.
So the Patriots, seeing no recourse, let the Giants score on the 6-yard run by Bradshaw that was almost anti-climactic to the march Manning engineered. “I was yelling to Ahmad not to score, not to score,” Manning said, “but he couldn’t help it and he rolled right in.”
That didn’t end this game. New England’s surrender was a strategic one, hoping Brady could have enough time to do to New York what Manning had done to them.
Nope.
Brady’s great. But as closers go, he simply isn’t in Manning’s league. Not this evening. No one really is in Manning’s league.
“It’s incredible. That was quite a drive he was able to put together,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “He deserves all the credit in the world because he really has put his team on his shoulder the whole year.
“He’s outstanding in that two-minute drill. … We have this goal of finish, finish, finish and he’s great at doing that.”
The best.
He’s the closer.
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Game Stats | Super Bowl XLVI 
