By Mike Lupica
The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/
February 6, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS — This was the night, in the second Super Bowl against the Patriots, the second time he won the game for his team in the last minute of a Super Bowl, that Eli Manning made it all official, that he is not just one of the great clutch quarterbacks in the history of his sport, but as great a clutch athlete as we have ever had in New York, in anything.
Nobody takes his team down the field and does it like this twice with an NFL championship on the line, not Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana or anybody.
Only now Eli has.
He has done it like this again and done it to the Patriots again, this time at Lucas Oil Stadium, this time handing the season to Ahmad Bradshaw at the end instead of throwing it to Plaxico Burress.
This time he started with three minutes and change left, instead of two minutes and change the way it was against the Patriots the last time. This time the throw to remember wasn’t to David Tyree, it was 38 yards down the left sideline to Mario Manningham. Not as crazy a catch as Tyree made in Super Bowl 42. Just a much better throw from Eli Manning, from his own 12-yard line.
Now it was much later at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Giants had won 21-17, and there was confetti everywhere and Jake Ballard, one of the receivers who caught balls from Eli all year long, was on a cart near the stage for the trophy presentation because he hurt his knee Sunday night against the Patriots. And Ballard was asked what it is in his quarterback’s DNA that makes him become the best quarterback in the world and one of the best to ever play games like this when games like this are on the line.
”It’s the Eli gene,” Ballard said.
Much later than that, standing outside the Giants locker room, Eli Manning’s mother, Olivia, was asked what it was like when the Giants got the ball back Sunday night with 3:46 left and they were still trailing the Patriots 17-15, and she knew that once again her youngest son was being asked to bring the Giants from behind in the last minutes of the Super Bowl, and the family was in the barrel again, this time in the stadium where Peyton Manning had been such a great player.
“I have to tell you,” she said, “I am always happy when the ball is in Eli’s hands.”
Archie Manning, a great quarterback who never got near a moment like this as a player, said, “And I’m pretty happy when the season is in his hands.”
So much had happened in this game before Eli (30-for-40, 296 yards, one touchdown pass, second Super Bowl MVP) got the ball back on the 12, still down two. Tom Brady had completed 16 passes in a row during one stretch and the Patriots had scored 17 points in a row to go ahead 17-9. But with four minutes left, Wes Welker dropped a deep ball he should have caught, that might have set the Patriots up to put the game away. The Patriots had to punt finally from the Giants 44. First down for Eli on the 12. First play he threw one of the best pure, cold, money passes he will ever throw to Manningham. Who somehow kept his feet in bounds. Giants at the 50 now.
And you knew. You knew in Indy that it was happening to the Patriots again, that Eli was doing it to them again in this wonderful Super Bowl, exactly what it was supposed to be, Giants-Patriots II feeling like Ali-Frazier III and making Justin Tuck say on the field, “I’m just glad we’re Ali.”
“That’s a huge play right there,” Eli said, on this night when he was the Super Bowl MVP for a second time. “When you’re backed up, to get a 40-yard gain and get to the middle of the field ...”
He completed four more passes after that, two to Manningham and two to a great talent named Hakeem Nicks. Then Bradshaw ran into the end zone even though there was a crazy moment when you thought he might stop to run more clock. Then a desperation throw from Brady was on the ground in the end zone, and the Giants really had come from 7-7 in December to win the fourth Super Bowl in the team’s history.
Outside the Giants locker room, Osi Umenyiora was asked which one was sweeter, this one or the one four years ago, and he said, “This one. Know why? They said the one four years ago was a fluke. What are they gonna say now?”
They are going to say that the Giants have now given their fans, the best there are anywhere, the two best championship runs any New York team has ever given anybody in anything. And a season that started out with the silly controversy of Eli saying he’s an elite quarterback merely ends with Giants fans knowing they would not trade him for another elite quarterback or player in his sport, not Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees or Brady or anybody.
Go find another quarterback who brought his team from behind twice in the last minute of a championship game like this. Oh, you get to do it once, the way Montana did against the Bengals in Miami one time. You do it the way Ben Roethlisberger did to the Cardinals in Tampa. You’re not supposed to do it twice. Only now Eli Manning, who takes his place right now with Lawrence Taylor as one of the two Giants who will be remembered best.
“Maybe there is something in his DNA,” Giants co-owner John Mara said. “Because the bigger the pressure, the cooler he is.”
Mo Rivera closed out all those October games. Eli is a different kind of closer. He closes by coming from behind in the Super Bowl. Twice.
Other quarterbacks have more Super Bowls. Give him time. By now we know he doesn’t need much. As great a clutch athlete as we’ve ever had here. Not just an elite quarterback Sunday night.
Best in the world.
