New York Giants Spoil New England Patriots' Perfect Season, Win Super Bowl XLII

18-1. A great NFL season in most any other circumstance. The 1984 San Franciso 49ers accomplished the feat, followed by the 1985 Chicago Bears. The difference was both of those teams lost perfection in the regular season, then rebounded to sweep through their respective conference's playoff and the Super Bowl to take home the Lombardi Trophy.

Now at 18-1 the 2007 New England Patriots will forever be reduced to the answer to a trivia question as the only NFL team to ever start 18-0, go over a calendar year without a loss, and yet come away without a championship in either season. Their last two losses have featured a Manning on the other sideline at Quarterback. Peyton Manning rallied the Indianapolis Colts from a 21-3 halftime deficit last year and went on to take a Super Bowl victory, now little brother Eli follows suit.

But, to be fair, it's not really about 18-1, the Mannings, New York vs. Boston, or any of that. This game was about the New York Giants' heart, desire, and belief in themselves as they defied history, the critics and the oddsmakers to win this game.

In earlier articles, CP Zac Wassink, a Giants fan, and I agreed that the best chance for the Giants was to keep Tom Brady and the explosive Patriot "Missile" offense on the sidelines. The GMen were able to do just that for much of the game, yet even that assessment was a little off kilter.

New England had the ball for 29:33 in the game to New York's 30:27, not much of a difference. The key to the victory for the Giants was their defensive line's dominance of New England's offensive line for most of the game. Tom Brady was sacked 5 times in Super Bowl XLII, and hit far more times. I haven't seen Brady hit like that in a long time.

With Brady under such duress, it was nearly impossible for the Pats to get the ball to Randy Moss and Donte Stallworth down the field where the record-setting offense had made their living all season. Wes Welker tied the Super Bowl record with 11 catches, but Welker had 112 catches on the season, so that was hardly a surprise. Welkers' catches were all short passes in front of the safeties, just as he had done throughout the season. The difference was that was about all the Patriots could get going in the passing game. The tight ends were not involved in the passing game, being kept in to block for Brady, such were the problems with New England's pass protection.

When Randy Moss did get involved, it was on shorter routes, mostly across the middle of the field, due to the lack of protection for Brady. One of the things about the Giants's effort that impressed the most was even though their defensive linemen often went to the sidelines seemingly exhausted, Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and cohorts "gutted it out". Even though they weren't getting as much push late in the game, New England still wasn't able to play "pitch and catch" as they did most of this season.

It was a great defensive gameplan by the Giants and the players executed it to near perfection. To hold New England's offense to a mere 14 points was a remarkable feat. When Plaxico Burress guaranteed a victory ala Joe Namath a few days ago, the thing that seemed to offend the Patriots the most was not that Burress would predict a win for the Giants, but that his pick was 23-17. Tom Brady seemed especially miffed about the idea that his offense would be held to such a low point total. Instead Burress' defensive teammates did him three points better.

The Giants' "D" was able to hold Lawrence Maroney of the Pats to only 36 yards rushing and the rest of the team only added 9 more yards. Maroney had over a hundred yards in each of the Patriots' playoff wins, so to hold the running game in check and still get such a fierce pass rush will go down as one of the better defensive performances in Super Bowl history.

The Giants wound up with 64 more yards than the previously unbeaten Patriots with 46 yards of that coming on the ground. Eli Manning stayed composed throughout. In spite of the Giants' defensive mauling of Brady, the difference turned out to be the play late in the game in which Manning spun out of what looked to be a certain sack. On 3rd and 5, Manning retreated further and threw "late over the middle", normally a big no-no in the NFL. Somehow, with the Patriots' Rodney Harrison all over him and other New England defenders nearby, Giant receiver David Tyree came down with the fingertip catch for a big gain.

Finally, a few plays later Plaxico Burress got open in the endzone and one of the bigger upsets in Super Bowl history was all but secured. The Giants held off the Patriots' last gasp attempt to score. Years from now, few will remember what the New York Giants' final record was, but football fans across the world will remember that New England's season ended with their only loss in over a year. Perfection is an elusive goal in any endeavor and the 1972 Miami Dolphins are still the only member in an exclusive NFL club.