Patriots' defense lets it slip away

BY TOM ROCK | tom.rock@newsday.com

February 4, 2008

Junior Seau after Plaxico Burress scored in fourth quarter.

New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau lies on the turf after New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl XLII football game at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008, in Glendale, Ariz. The Giants won 17-14. (AP / February 3, 2008)

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Hiding beneath all the gaudy offensive numbers, all the acrobatic receptions, all the dominant performances was the Patriots' unheralded defense.

When New England won the AFC Championship Game two weeks ago by holding the San Diego Chargers to three field goals on three visits into the red zone, several of the veterans who had won previous rings were heard saying that it was a return to Patriots football: winning on defense and scrounging enough points to survive.

Last night, the Patriots' offense faltered for most of the game, but it still managed to hand the defense a 14-10 lead with 2:42 left. It was the defense - the infrastructure of the dynasty, the brainchild of Bill Belichick - that allowed immortality to slip away.

The Patriots had allowed only four touchdowns in the final two minutes of either half this season. Two of them were to Eli Manning and the Giants in the regular-season finale. But the one that will forever sting the most in New England will be the 12-play, 83-yard drive that Manning engineered to give the Giants an improbable 17-14 win in Super Bowl XLII.

"That's all we're about, we're about finishing the task at hand," linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "We expect to win here. We've had success in the past, so we expected the same type of success [last night]."

It looked like pure Patriots magic again, the kind that had won the previous three visits to the Super Bowl for the Patriots. Rodney Harrison drilled Amani Toomer after he caught an 8-yard pass on third-and-9 to force a Giants punt with 7:54 remaining, and Tom Brady led a 12-play, 80-yard drive to give the Patriots a 14-10 lead. Brady hit Randy Moss for the go-ahead touchdown, a 6-yarder with cornerback Corey Webster lying on the ground. Those are the kinds of Super Bowl endings the Patriots are used to. In two of their three wins in this title game, they had come back with a scoring drive in the fourth quarter.

But that defense wilted under the steely gaze of a most unlikely stare from MVP Eli Manning. First there was the inability to drag Manning down, allowing him to escape the grasp of several would-be sackers tugging at his jersey, and allowing him to launch a 32-yard pass to David Tyree on third-and-5. Even that reception looked like it was going to be an interception by Rodney Harrison, but Tyree caught the ball over his head and landed at the Patriots' 24 to get the Giants into scoring position.

Then the Patriots allowed Plaxico Burress, who brashly predicted victory on his way to Arizona a week ago, to slip wide open in the corner of the end zone and grab a fade pass from Manning for the 13-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left.

"That's what we're used to doing," defensive end Richard Seymour said. "We just didn't get it done. The Giants were the better team and they got it done."

The Giants scored both of their fourth-quarter touchdowns from the red zone, the first one on a 5-yard pass to Tyree on play-action that cleared out the middle of the field. That drive also started with a big passing play, a 45-yard seam pass to Kevin Boss in which Harrison was in coverage and tried to tackle the tight end at midfield but couldn't get him down until he reached the Patriots' 35.

"I was real close," cornerback Asante Samuel said of covering Tyree on the touchdown pass. "That's one of those plays that we left on the field."

SUPER BOWL SHOCKERS

This is the fifth time a double-digit underdog has won the Super Bowl:

Super Bowl Result Point spread

III Jets 16, Colts 7 Colts by 18

IV Chiefs 23, Vikings 7 Vikings by 12

XXXII Broncos 31, Packers 24 Packers by 11

XXXVI Patriots 20, Rams 17 Rams by 14

XLII Giants 17, Patriots 14 Patriots by 12