By Ron Griffitts
Contributing Columnist
On Feb. 5, 2012, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the New York Giants (12-7) coached by Tom Coughlin met the New England Patriots (13-3) coached by Bill Belichick in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII.
For the Patriots it was their fifth Super Bowl appearance in 10 years and they were led as in their previous Super Bowls by quarterback Tom Brady who passed for 5,235 yards and 39 touchdowns. Running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis (667 rushing yards, 11 TDs), receivers Wes Welker (1,569 yards, 9 TDs) and Rob Gronkowski (1,327 yards, 17 TDs) and place kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who made 28 of 33 field goal attempts helped lead the offense.
Belichick’s offensive coordinator was Bill O’Brien.
The defense was led by Kyle Arrington (88 combined tackles, 7 interceptions), Jerod Mayo (95 combined tackles, 1 sack, 2 interceptions), and Andre Carter and Mark Anderson, both with 10 sacks each.
Tom Coughlin’s assistants were offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride and his defensive coordinator was Perry Fewell. They were led on offense by Super Bowl XLII game MVP Eli Manning who threw for 4,933 yards and 29 touchdowns, running backs Ahmad Bradshaw (659 yards, 9 TDs) and Brandon Jacobs (571 yards, 7 TDs), receivers Victor Cruz (1,536 yards, 9 TDs) and Hakeem Nicks (1,192, 9 TDs) and their place kicker was Lawrence Tynes, who converted on 19 of 24 field goal attempts.
Their defense was anchored by Antrel Rolle (96 combined tackles, 2 interceptions), Jason Pierre-Paul (16.5 sacks), Corey Webster (6 interceptions) and Osi Umenviora with 9 sacks.
The Giants scored first on an intentional grounding penalty on Tom Brady in the end zone for a safety and Eli Manning directed his team downfield for a score on a 2-yard pass to Victor Cruz with a 24-yard run by Ahmad Bradshaw being a key play in the series. The Giants led 9-0 after the first quarter.
The Pats got on the board with a 29-yard Stephen Goskowski field goal and a Tom Brady 4-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left in the half to Danny Woodhead, with the longest play of the series being a 20-yard completion to Rob Gronkowski, and the score was 10-9 Patriots at the half.
New England got the ball to start the second half and with the help of a 21-yard reception by former Bengal Chad Johnson went down the field for a score to make it 17-9 in favor of the Patriots.
The Giants added two field goals by Lawrence Tynes of 33 and 38 yards and the teams went into the fourth quarter with a 17-15 New England lead.
The tightly contested game was scoreless for most of the quarter with New England holding on to their slim lead until Eli Manning completed a 38-yard pass to Mario Manningham from his own 12-yard line to start a drive that would score the game-winning touchdown on a 6-yard run by Ahmad Bradshaw. The 2-point conversion failed. But New York led 21-17 with 57 seconds left on the clock and the Patriots could not muster a scoring drive. The Giants won with Eli Manning getting his second Super Bowl game MVP award.
The Giants have yet to go back to the Super Bowl, but the Patriots and Brady were back in 2015. In Tom Brady’s remarkable 10 Super Bowl appearances, the Giants were the only team to defeat him twice as he won seven of those Super Bowls.
Eli Manning retired after the 2019 season with 57,023 lifetime passing yards, good for ninth place on the all-time list. He is one of only eight quarterbacks in NFL history to have two or more Super Bowl victories and is a likely future Hall of Fame inductee. He and his brother Peyton would be the only quarterbacks that are brothers to not only be in the Hall of Fame but also to each have two Super Bowl rings.
Also likely to be considered for the Hall of Fame is the Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin, a tough, no-nonsense competitor who was 170-150 in 20 NFL seasons with two Super Bowl wins.
Statistics for this article are from pro-football.com.
Ron Griffitts a contributing columnist for The Daily Advocate.
