Sep 25, 2021

  • Hashemite kingdom of jordan RaananESPN Staff Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It'southward the drive that says everything most Eli Manning the football player. The poise, the moxie and even-keeled demeanor came to the fore even in the most stressful of situations.

The old New York Giants quarterback put information technology all on display Feb. 3, 2008, in a career-defining, game-winning march which beat the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Basin XLII.

It was this moment that propelled Manning's legacy into a different stratosphere. He was no longer aw-shucks Eli, brother of Peyton and son of Archie. The youngest of the Manning boys was the conductor of a monumental upset (the Giants were a 12.five-bespeak underdog) highlighted past his clutch performance in the final two:39 in Glendale, Arizona.

Without that xiv minutes of real time, the retirement of his No. x bailiwick of jersey at halftime of the Giants-Atlanta Falcons game at MetLife Stadium Sunday (i p.m. ET, Pull a fast one on) might not be happening.

Manning beat the Patriots again four years afterward in Super Basin XLVI, merely taking down quarterback Tom Brady and bus Bill Belichick in his first Super Basin made him a champion, an MVP and a Giants legend.

The Giants were a x-vi wild-menu team that scrapped its way through the NFC playoffs with road wins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and tiptop-seeded Dallas Cowboys before chirapsia the second-seeded Green Bay Packers in overtime in sub-zero conditions at Lambeau Field. They entered the Super Bowl against a Patriots team ranked the seventh-all-time in history past NFL Films in 2019.

"People don't really sympathize, and I know I'm incredibly one-sided on this, but this is the greatest Super Bowl upset of all fourth dimension. It'south the greatest," said then-bus Tom Coughlin of the 17-fourteen win. "It might be the greatest upset of all time. Period."

Manning escaping a sack and throwing to receiver David Tyree, who squeezed the ball to his helmet for an incredible catch, is the signature moment of the winning match. Manning to Plaxico Burress for the game-winning touchdown completed the fairy tale, but in that location was and then much more to that classic drive that earned the Giants some other Lombardi Trophy for their display in the Quest Diagnostics Training Centre antechamber.

"That whole playoff stretch was probably very important in my career ... and Autobus Coughlin's," Manning said. "We were probably both on that line of, 'Hey, do these guys have what it takes or not?' ... I call back that kind of just proved that, 'Hey, he tin play well in the biggest moments.'"

Said Coughlin: "He told the earth what kind of actor he was under those circumstances. He came through in the clutch against a team that was 18-0. How can you deny what he was able to accomplish?"

83 yards from glory

Brady's touchdown laissez passer to Randy Moss gives the Patriots a fourteen-10 lead. The perfect flavor is in their sights. The Giants take over at their 17-yard line with 2:39 remaining.

Coughlin: "I can't even think nearly [that drive] without getting goosebumps, without getting excited and having a huge smile on my face up."

Michael Strahan, Giants defensive end, to teammates: "Seventeen, 14 is the final, OK? Seventeen, fourteen fellas. 1 touchdown and we are world champions. Believe it and it will happen."

Manning (to Giants.com): "We were very confident. There wasn't a whole lot said. I only kind of ran in and said, 'All right, here nosotros go.'"

The first play, Manning hits receiver Amani Toomer on the numbers for an 11-yard gain. The Giants take their fourth dimension getting to the line of scrimmage. They have 3 timeouts and the ii-minute warning remaining.

Toomer: "They always say in a 2-minute drive the first first down is the hardest to get. Once you become the first first down, things start rolling from there."

Coughlin: "I don't call back y'all can escape the circumstances and the situation and what was at stake there. And when you await at Eli's face, you know, y'all tin tell. The competitor is coming exterior of him in that situation."

Manning is upset with himself after throwing an incompletion high over the middle to Burress on the next play. Under pressure, he overthrows Burress near the sideline moments later. Burress has i catch for 17 yards on seven targets at this bespeak.

Coughlin: "In that location are a million small dramas, one of which was ... I had to turn in the inactives as always 90 minutes before offset. I didn't even know if Plaxico was going to play. He wasn't even able to practice. He had a bad knee. [Able-bodied trainer] Ronnie Barnes was trying to put him in a circumstance where he would get out and prove to us he could play. And information technology actually took him a lot of fourth dimension to get him to be gear up to go out and do that. ... All he did was say, 'He'south going!' And that was it. Ronnie went correct back in the training room. I had to write another name on the sheet."

That would bear witness valuable later. In the concurrently, the Giants had to navigate a third-and-ten.

Toomer: "I ran an option road. [Manning] threw me to the footing and I was a m short. I thought I was going to get a first down because I was open and so he threw the ball on the ground, so I had to dive for information technology. I picked it up and tried to roll [for the starting time downwardly] just they touched me earlier I got to roll back."

That set up fourth-and-i at New York's 37.

Coughlin: "Nosotros had [running back] Brandon Jacobs at 265 pounds and you were running right behind [right guard] Chris Snee and [right tackle] Kareem [McKenzie]. The strength of that call was information technology was our power, our play -- our forcefulness, against theirs. They loaded information technology up. The but thing that was left was a little crevice there because of the number of bodies they brought in that play."

Snee: "If you watch me, I kind of chip [Patriots defensive tackle Vince] Wilfork and I have to hit the [line]capitalist and get up to my responsibility. ... Information technology was just plenty of each guy to become that little pucker that Brandon needed to get through."

On the next play, Manning escaped pressure level and scrambled for 5 yards to the 44, where the Giants used their commencement timeout with 1:20 left. An incompletion to Tyree followed, a pass that slipped through the hands of Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel, what would accept been a game-clinching interception.

Coughlin: "[Manning] expected something unlike out of David Tyree. He's really disappointed. It'southward obvious. Y'all can see it on his confront."

Toomer: "[Patriots defensive lineman] Richard Seymour [after the dropped interception] was like, 'Don't worry, guys. You guys are near to go home. Don't worry about that. This game is almost over.' That is when I really thought yous tin't talk like that and tempt the football gods. I felt he thought they had won."

The Helmet Catch

That set up the third-and-5 that volition never be forgotten -- a 32-yard catch with a minute left by Tyree over prophylactic Rodney Harrison at New England'south 24-yard line.

Toomer: "The brawl was supposed to become to the corner considering [receiver] Steve Smith was running the corner route."

Coughlin: "I really don't think anyone, anyone, fifty-fifty the writers or historical people don't empathise -- really, really understand -- the impact of the play. I've heard information technology expressed this way, that it was lucky or something along those lines. Let me tell yous something, the fact that Eli had the presence to pull himself out of the grasp of people, I was afraid -- yous heard me say this that night -- I was afraid [referee] Mike Carey was going to blow the play expressionless."

Snee: "[Eli] admits he thought he was going to throw it to me. Watch the moving picture. I took a small stride back saying, 'Don't do that. That is a bad idea.' Could you imagine if the brawl got pitched to me?"

Toomer: "I saw David open and thought we might catch information technology. And then I saw Rodney Harrison and I was similar, 'Damn information technology!' Then I heard the crowd go crazy and I'm like, 'What happened?'"

Manning: I remember asking David. 'David, did you catch it?' He was like, 'Yeah, I caught it.' I've been burned then many times past receivers just lying to me, simply right to my face. I was similar, 'David, honestly, yous're a Christian man, did you catch this?' He was like 'I promise you I defenseless it.'"

Harrison, to ESPN in 2008: "Non in a million years does he make that catch again. I don't have any regrets on it. I saw the ball, went upwardly for information technology and did my all-time to grab information technology out. It goes on his head, so what can yous say? I think you have to understand that sure things happen that yous only can't explicate."

Coughlin: "For David Tyree to go upward in the air against Rodney Harrison, who is probably 15 pounds bigger and a stronger man, an All-Pro, neat character, great strength, great football player. ... David Tyree held onto the ball against the strongest of guys who [were] knocking away at his arms to endeavour to separate him from the ball. He came down with Harrison across the back of his knees and nonetheless held onto the brawl, which is to me an incredible accomplishment that he is not given enough credit for."

Manning (to NFL Films): "David Tyree had the worst practice [Fri] in the history of practices at any level."

Strahan (to NFL Films): "That right there [Tyree's catch] permit me know we're going to win this game, because for something that magical to happen in a season so magical, we could not lose."

Eli secures his legacy

Manning was sacked for a ane-thousand loss by Seymour on the next play and New York used information technology's 2d timeout with 51 seconds left. Then he was hit and threw a floater to the far sideline that Tyree couldn't corral. It gear up upward the third third down of the drive.

Coughlin: "The 3rd-and-11. Are you serious? Steve Smith knows exactly what he has to get and keeps his feet inbounds. How heady. He gains [12] yards. Exactly what he had to accept."

Snee: "Adalius Thomas was coming off the edge hard on that play. Steve converted it and the next play ...

Information technology was Manning to Burress for the game-winning, 13-1000 touchdown with 35 seconds remaining.

Coughlin: "Eli kind of lofts the brawl over the head of everybody so Plaxico is the only guy that can get it. You're talking about play after play after play [by Manning]."

Toomer: "I thought I was going to become a touchdown. To stop our two-minute drive on that Friday before the game, we ran that verbal play to the other side against our defense and I caught the touchdown. And so [we] called that play once again and I thought it was going to score a touchdown again. That whole game in the ruby zone we knew they were going to do the all-out blitz. The cover-cipher blitz. And they didn't practise it when we went downward there the commencement couple times. ... [On the final drive] Plaxico was on the back side singled up against [cornerback Ellis Hobbs]. It was a double-motion. Nosotros knew it from the beginning. That was our adjustment. Nosotros knew they were looking for the slant."

Burress (to Giants.com): "Eli can't hike the ball fast enough, and he lets it get. I make a move on Ellis Hobbs, he takes the imitation and I just run clean past him. [After the grab] The feeling just went out of me. I couldn't believe that it just happened. I couldn't believe it!"

Hobbs, after the game: "It was just one-on-i. Information technology's not hard to read when you lot have nil out at that place. You have to protect the inside and I have to respect the slant and within route. If our blitz doesn't get there, all he has to do is milk shake off of me."

Snee: "Eli says he knows this is one-on-1 coverage from pre-snap. ... Even so kind of surprised [the Patriots] did that. It seemed like the brawl took forever to go down. It also seemed information technology took forever for his 2d foot to get down. Information technology simply seemed similar a play in tedious movement."

Manning: "That ball just seemed to hang upwards in the air forever. I'grand similar, 'Please come up downward. Let him have two feet inbounds and let this exist a touchdown.'"

Toomer: "I call back looking out to the sideline later on Plax scored. Information technology was pandemonium. Information technology was like Christmas Twenty-four hours."

Manning (subsequently the game): They finally blitzed. [Hobbs] squatted. They thought [Plaxico] was running a camber or something. I thought almost slinging the slant to him. They brought seven. That is what nosotros hoped for. Just a chance to throw it upward.

Toomer: "Nosotros hit 'em with the double move. Sluggo. Camber and go. We were a step ahead of them that time."

Snee: "Eli cemented what everyone in that locker room thought of him. But that drive, winning a Super Bowl, you know what that does to the public perception of him."

Coughlin: "You always look at that and call up about it. I think one of the greatest things yous tin can say, near a person, about a player, is that ... when the game was on the line, Eli Manning as the quarterback of the New York Giants had to take a team on his shoulders and motility them down the field and put us in a position to score a touchdown -- we needed a touchdown, not a field goal, to win the game -- he did information technology. He did it. And he did it in style."

ESPN Patriots reporter Mike Reiss contributed to this story.