The New York Giants won their second Super Bowl in five years with a 21-17 win over the New England Patriots at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The Giants got out to a quick 2-0 lead that seemed to stun everyone in attendance.  On their first offensive play, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was called for intentional grounding in the end zone after an incomplete pass launched 40 yards down the field.  No receivers were within the vicinity of Brady's pass and he was still inside the tackle box.

After the Giants added a Victor Cruz touchdown reception to extend the lead to 9-0, the Patriots offense finally got in sync.

Early in the second quarter, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 29 yard field to get the Pats on the board. Then, the teams exchanged punts and the Patriots got the ball back with 4:03 left in the first half. Brady and the Patriots were pinned at their 2 yard line after the punt. Working almost exclusively from the shotgun, Brady completed 9 consecutive passes to move the Patriots within the Giants 5 yard line. Then with 15 seconds left in the half, Brady completes his 10th consecutive pass of the drive, to Danny Woodhead, for a 4 yard touchdown. With the extra point, the Patriots took a 10-9 lead into halftime.

New England received the opening kickoff of the second half and march the ball 79 yards down the field for another touchdown.  Brady capped the 8 play drive off with a 12 yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez. However, with the score 17-9, that would be the Patriots final score of the game.

Two Lawrence Tynes field goals in the last half of the third quarter pulled the Giants within two points at 17-15.

As the fourth quarter started, both teams exchanged punts with drives that ended up eating up two-thirds of the quarter.

So, with 3:46 left to go in the game, one timeout left, and down by two points, Eli Manning was given one more chance to get the Giants the lead.  Starting at his own 12 yard line, on the first play of the drive, Manning went deep down the left sideline to Mario Manningham.  Manningham was able to pull in the catch and keep both of his feet in bounds as he had a defender on top of him.

Bill Belichick challenged the catch, the play was upheld, and the Patriots lost their first timeout of the half.

Manning then completed two more passes to Manningham to move the Giants to the Patriots 32 yard line. After an Ahmad Bradshaw 7 yard run and a 4 yard pass to Hakeem Nicks, for a first down, the Giants had the ball at the 7 yard line with 1:09 left. With the clock stopped because Nicks got out of bounds, the Giants went to Bradshaw again.  However, he only gained one yard to the 6.  The Patriots then used their second timeout with 1:04 left.

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The next play, 2nd and Goal from the 6, became the most important play of the game.  The Giants called a running play for Badshaw up the middle.  The Patriots defensive lineman and linebackers cleared out of the way for Bradshaw to score.  At the very last instant Bradshaw stopped, crouched and rolled into the end zone (pictured) with 0:57 left.

The touchdown gave the Giants a 21-17 lead.  The Giants decided to go for the two point conversion, which would have extended the lead to 6, but the Bradshaw run to the right failed.

The significance of Bradshaw's touchdown was that it gave the ball back to the Patriots one more time.  If Bradshaw had gone down at the 1 yard line, and not scored, the Giants could have forced the Patriots to either burn their final timeout or allow at least 30 more seconds off of the clock before attempting another play or field goal.

Nevertheless, with one timeout left, the Patriots had a final chance to win the game.  Tom Brady's drive started at the 20 after a touchback.  On a 4th and 10, after two incomplete passes and a 4 yard sack, Brady connected with Deion Branch for a 19 yard gain.  Four plays later, a hail mary pass from the Patriots 49 yard line fell incomplete in the end zone to end the game.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning was named Super Bowl XLVI MVP. Manning passing was for 30/40 for 296 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions.

The Giants win was the second Super Bowl win for head coach Tom Coughlin.

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