Going Beyond The Everyday: Eli Manning Leads Giants To Another Super Bowl Win

The New York Giants once again were set to face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl and were once again viewed as the underdog by Las Vegas as the Giants opened the game as three point underdogs. The Giants struggled to even make the playoffs in the 2011 season, a season in which Eli Manning deemed himself worthy of being an "elite" NFL quarterback, which was met with a bit of backlash by most of the NFL media and community. Manning backed up his comments however with another spectacular run through the playoffs, all on the road, and winning the second Super Bowl of his career.

The Giants jumped out to an early lead when Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was flagged for intentional grounding in the endzone, giving the Giants a two point lead on the resulting safety. Eli Manning then marched the Giants right down the football field, capping off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Victor Cruz to push their lead to 9-0 and put the Patriots on the ropes. The Patriots rallied back however, taking a 10-9 lead into halftime and pushing their lead to 17-9 early in the second half, looking like they had taken all momentum out of the Giants.

Manning then led the Giants to score 12 unanswered points in the second half of the game to win Super Bowl XLVI. While Eli Manning threw his only touchdown pass of the game in the first quarter, he engineered the time consuming game winning drive by the Giants to earn his second Super Bowl MVP award. Manning started off the drive on a 38-yard sideline pass to wide receiver Mario Manningham to get the Giants near midfield. He then connected with Manningham again on the next two plays and picked up 14 yards on a pass to Hakeem Nicks to put the Giants in the redzone. Manning ended the game winning drive completing five of his six pass attempts for 74 yards, coming up big in the games' biggest moment.