So the Giants have done it again now, out of the stars, made it back through another overtime and into a Super Bowl. Lawrence Tynes has kicked another overtime field goal, this time at old Candlestick Park, kicked them to a rematch in Indianapolis with Brady and Belichick and the Patriots. So the Giants go back to the big game, go back because of big defense and big luck Sunday night, go all the way to Indy from 7-7 in the regular season. Were they lucky Sunday night at old Candlestick? You know they were. Sometimes you need some luck to go with the magic.
It was 20-17 this time, Tynes getting the chance in overtime because a kid named Kyle Williams, the Bill Buckner of this game. Williams had a Steve Weatherford punt bounce off his knee in the fourth quarter, setting up the touchdown that briefly put the Giants ahead this time. Then he fumbled one away to Devin Thomas in overtime that was the same as having his team’s season go through his hands.
An overtime championship game for the Giants. Again. Nobody had ever had two of those, until Tom Coughlin’s Giants, who came from nowhere to this one, who had that 7-7 record, and have now won five in a row from there, gone from nowhere to Indy.
When it was over Sunday, when there was a chance for Coughlin to have a quiet moment in the Giants locker room, he was sitting next to Osi Umenyiora, who turned to his coach and said, “Do you believe how all this is going down?”
Coughlin’s Giants won it all from 10-6 four years ago. They try to do it from 9-7 this time. But here they are, here are the Giants again, back to being the biggest game in town, and in Jersey, and everywhere there are people who grew up loving this team, starting with the ones who go all the way back to the Polo Grounds.
Eli Manning threw it 58 times at old Candlestick Park Sunday night, completed 32, threw two touchdown passes, one a bullet to Mario Manningham after that punt bounced off poor Kyle Williams’ knee when Williams shouldn’t have been near that ball, at a time when the 49ers defense was beating up Eli Manning but good.
But Eli Manning didn’t pick the Giants up and carry them to Indy Sunday the way he has carried them for so much of this amazing season. He had chances to win the game at the end of regulation, oh man did he, but could not, mostly because he was spending too much time picking himself off the ground.
Eli got the ball first in overtime and the Giants had to punt it and got it again and the Giants had to punt it away. And that is a way of telling you that the Giants go to the Super Bowl because of defense out of their past. Because they gave up two big plays — two touchdown drives for San Francisco that didn’t last two minutes, total - and gave Alex Smith and the 49ers nothing the rest of the day and night in San Francisco.
It was 20-17 this time, Tynes getting the chance in overtime because a kid named Kyle Williams, the Bill Buckner of this game. Williams had a Steve Weatherford punt bounce off his knee in the fourth quarter, setting up the touchdown that briefly put the Giants ahead this time. Then he fumbled one away to Devin Thomas in overtime that was the same as having his team’s season go through his hands.
An overtime championship game for the Giants. Again. Nobody had ever had two of those, until Tom Coughlin’s Giants, who came from nowhere to this one, who had that 7-7 record, and have now won five in a row from there, gone from nowhere to Indy.
When it was over Sunday, when there was a chance for Coughlin to have a quiet moment in the Giants locker room, he was sitting next to Osi Umenyiora, who turned to his coach and said, “Do you believe how all this is going down?”
Coughlin’s Giants won it all from 10-6 four years ago. They try to do it from 9-7 this time. But here they are, here are the Giants again, back to being the biggest game in town, and in Jersey, and everywhere there are people who grew up loving this team, starting with the ones who go all the way back to the Polo Grounds.
Eli Manning threw it 58 times at old Candlestick Park Sunday night, completed 32, threw two touchdown passes, one a bullet to Mario Manningham after that punt bounced off poor Kyle Williams’ knee when Williams shouldn’t have been near that ball, at a time when the 49ers defense was beating up Eli Manning but good.
But Eli Manning didn’t pick the Giants up and carry them to Indy Sunday the way he has carried them for so much of this amazing season. He had chances to win the game at the end of regulation, oh man did he, but could not, mostly because he was spending too much time picking himself off the ground.
Eli got the ball first in overtime and the Giants had to punt it and got it again and the Giants had to punt it away. And that is a way of telling you that the Giants go to the Super Bowl because of defense out of their past. Because they gave up two big plays — two touchdown drives for San Francisco that didn’t last two minutes, total - and gave Alex Smith and the 49ers nothing the rest of the day and night in San Francisco.
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