Sport - Sports : General

Giants shocks Patriots

GLENDALE (U.S.A.): Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard throw with 35 seconds left as the New York Giants shattered the New England Patriots’ unbeaten season by winning the Super Bowl 17-14 on Sunday.

The result, the Giants’ 11th straight on the road win, was one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.

Patriots (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalised for illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals in the season-opener against the New York Jets.

But its defence could not stop a final and frantic 12-play, 83-yard drive that featured a spectacular leaping catch by David Tyree, who had scored Giants’ first touchdown on the opening drive of the fourth quarter.

“It’s the greatest feeling in professional sports,” Burress said before bursting into tears.

“That’s a position you want to be in,” said Manning, who followed older brother Peyton’s Most Valuable Player performance last year with one of his own. “You can’t write a better script. There were so many big plays on that drive.”

The Patriots was done in not so much by the pressure of the first unbeaten season in 35 years as by the pressure of a smothering Giants pass rush.

Tom Brady, the league’s MVP, was sacked five times, hurried a dozen more and at one point wound up on his knees, his hands on his hips following one of many poor throws. — AP

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu