Manning up

Romer Bautista, Staff

With less than three minutes remaining in the Super Bowl, the eventual champions looked to their quarterback — a young, confident leader with ice in his veins — to lead a game-winning touchdown drive.

He did it.

And, believe it or not, his name was not Tom Brady.

Eli Manning’s game-winning drive right down the throats of the New England Patriots was the stuff of legends. Manning’s miraculous escape from what looked to be a sure sack, which turned into a 33-yard David Tyree reception, will be replayed over and over again for decades to come.

And it should be, for it was the play where Eli stepped out of the shadows of older brother Peyton and became his own man.

He’s now Eli Manning, Super Bowl MVP.

It’s the story that no one thought would be written about this week. No one believed that we’d be here today with the Patriots sitting at 18-1 and the New York Giants as the Super Bowl champs. Vegas experts certainly didn’t believe so — they had the Patriots as 12-point favourites. Amazon.com didn’t think so — they were advertising the sale of 19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England’s Unbeatable Patriots before the game even started. And the city of Boston certainly didn’t think it would be done — Mayor Thomas Menino had already planned a victory parade.

But from the opening snap, it was obvious that Eli Manning believed that it was possible. And like the great leader that he is, he inspired his team to believe that it was possible, too. Manning had his Giants living up to their name: they played like a bunch of giants. Coming right out of the gates, Manning put together a statement-making, 16-play, 10-minute drive that showed that his team was not going to stand in awe of the undefeated Patriots no matter how many people expected them to do so.

They didn’t care about the records the Patriots had broken during the regular season, nor did they care about the pursuit of perfection. They weren’t in Arizona to simply hand the Vince Lombardi Trophy to New England and crown their asses.

They knew they had the personnel to hang with the Patriots and that they would have a chance if they executed their game plan, which was to keep Brady and the New England offence off the field, and if they were on the field, to get as much pressure on the quarterback as possible.

Manning and the offence took care of the former, holding on to the ball for more than half the game and more than doubling the rushing output of the Patriots, while Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo took care of the latter, coming up with a fool-proof defensive scheme. It was simple, really. Pressure the hell out of Brady and never let him find a comfortable rhythm. But as often is the case in sports, saying you’ll do something is one thing, but going out and actually doing it is another. Brady faced so little pressure over the course of the season that there were games when it seemed like he didn’t even need to wash his jersey.

But Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and the rest of the Giants pass rushers brought the pressure and absolutely embarrassed the much ballyhooed Patriots offensive-line (which featured three pro-bowlers). The Giants defence’s final stat-line consisted of five sacks, more than a dozen hurries, a forced fumble, and one really dirty Tom Brady jersey.

The defence’s most important accomplishment, however, was giving Eli a chance at the end of the game to win it for them — to drive the football down the field for the game-winning score.

The Giants knew. Before anyone else found out, they already knew. They knew that they had a quarterback who was ready to step up on the biggest stage possible, put his name in the record books, and lay claim to being one of the best quarterbacks in the game.

They knew that they didn’t just have any man, they had “the man”: Eli Manning.

The man came through, and just like 19-0, the rest is history.