Manning is the man for Giants

INDIANAPOLIS — Super Bowls most often are won and lost at two points of the game.

The first point is the beginning. That's when teams make statements, establish patterns and take control or lose it.

In the opening minutes, Giants quarterback Eli Manning was so precise you would have felt comfortable if he were putting a scalpel to your sternum.

He was, in fact, operating on the Patriots.

He completed his first nine passes, which set a Super Bowl record. More importantly, he helped the Patriots to a 9-0 lead, first by setting up his defense for a safety, and then by completing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Victor Cruz.

Early on, the only way to prevent Manning from completing a pass was to put him on the ground before he could unload it.

The second point when Super Bowls are won and lost is, of course, crunch time.

Or should we call it Eli time?

As good as Manning was after the opening bell, he was better near the closing bell.

By the time 9:35 was left in the game, Manning was down two tight ends and two of three timeouts. The Giants trailed 17-15.

The odds were against him.

But odds don't matter to Manning, whose Giants came into the game as a 3-point underdog. They came into the Super Bowl four years ago as a 12 1/2-point underdog, and they won that one too.

He had a cold look in his eyes when the Giants took over on their own 12 with 3:46 left. Just as Kelly Clarkson hit the high notes at the end of the "Star-Spangled Banner," Manning hit the high notes at the end of the game.

On the first play of their last drive, Manning connected with wide receiver Mario Manningham on a spectacular sideline play for 38 yards.

"They were in Cover-2," Manning said. "Usually that is not your matchup. They had us covered pretty well to the right. I looked that way. I saw I had the safety cheated in a little bit and threw it down the sideline. Great catch by him, keeping both feet in. ... It was a big, big, big-time play right there."

Manning also had completions of 16, 2, 14 and 4 yards on the nine-play, 88-yard drive, which culminated with a 6-yard touchdown run by Ahmad Bradshaw with 57 seconds left.

That gave Tom Brady the ball and enough time for an Eli imitation.

But this one belonged to Manning.

"That was quite a drive that he was able to put together," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "He deserves all the credit in the world because he really has put his team on his shoulders all year and performed very well."