Resilient Giants showed what they are made of

GLENDALE, ARIZ. - This was a victory for nobility and resiliency, not to mention truth, justice and the American way.

The New York Giants stole perfection from the New England Patriots with a 17-14 victory that was earned in the game's final minute.

"We had a chance to be something special," Patriots defensive end Richard Seymour said. "We didn't do it. We're second-class."

Certainly, they were second best Sunday against a Giants team that had played them fiercely for 60 minutes back on Dec. 29.

The Giants could have allowed the Patriots to cruise to a perfect regular season but chose instead to play hard-nosed and lost by a field goal.

"People were telling us, 'You shouldn't play; you should rest your players,' Giants cornerback Sam Madison said last week. "But that is not what coach [Tom] Coughlin is all about, and that's not what the New York Giants are all about.

"They never have been about that. You look at Lawrence Taylor, and if he had been in the same situation, I'm pretty sure he would've said, 'We're going to play this football game the way it's supposed to be played.'

"That's the way the New York Giants went out and played that last game. Yes, we lost, but it gave us an opportunity to believe in one another, and that has carried on."

The Patriots rallied for a 38-35 victory on that cold Saturday night in New York. They then took a week off, won a couple of home games and advanced to their fourth Super Bowl in the past seven seasons.

The Giants had a much more difficult path -- first to Tampa Bay, then to Dallas and finally to a frozen Lambeau Field to defeat Green Bay. In all three of those games, the Giants played the superior game and were worthy winners.

And the same should be said of Sunday, when the Giants dominated the heavily favored Patriots in the first half only to find themselves trailing 7-3.

And then they trailed again, in the final three minutes, when young cornerback Corey Webster fell and quarterback Tom Brady flipped a 6-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss.

This was going to be a Super Bowl winner for Moss to rub in the faces of his critics, and then something strange happened:

Giants quarterback Eli Manning -- after a mostly shaky evening -- managed a game-winning drive that was inspired by a 32-yard reception for the ages by receiver David Tyree.

Tyree's catch put the Giants deep in Patriots territory, and then Plaxico Burress beat cornerback Ellis Hobbs and took Manning's 13-yard TD pass.

It was 17-14 for the Giants, and there were 29 seconds left when Brady and the Patriots got the ball at their 26.

An incompletion and a sack, and then it was desperation time for Brady. He showed more arm than you could imagine, unloading a pass that traveled 70 yards toward Moss. The Super Freak couldn't pull it down against double coverage.

The Patriots were trying to complete a 19-0 season that started with them being caught spying on the New York Jets. The season now concluded with the first loss in their four recent Super Bowls, and with reports that the Patriots' cheating might go back to videotaping the St. Louis Rams before the 2002 Super Bowl.

Cheaters aren't supposed to win, and these Patriots might have been doing a lot more of it than Commissioner Roger Goodell believed when he levied a fine and took away a first-round draft choice for the videotaping of the Jets in Week 1 of 2007.

There's also was some humor in this result, with Burress being the recipient of the winning touchdown pass. On the Giants' arrival here last week, Burress had predicted a 23-17 victory for his team.

Brady drew laughter from his media audience when he was asked about Plaxico's prediction.

"What was the score?" Brady asked reporters. "We're only going to score 17 points? Is Plax going to play defense?"

Turns out, Burress now rates with another New Yorker -- the Jets' Joe Namath in 1969 -- when it comes to Super Bowl clairvoyance.

"They were giving a man-to-man press at the line, with another [defender] over the top all day," Burress said. "On the last play of the game, I got single coverage because they were in an all-out blitz.

"I put on a move. When I saw I was open, I wanted to make sure I looked the ball all the way in and made sure my feet were in. There was a great sigh of relief when I knew I had it."

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com