NFL

Giants stop Brady when it counts

INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Brady left Lucas Oil Stadium last night wearing a tailor-made suit and holding hands with his supermodel wife Gisele, trailed by a horde of cameramen and reporters. At least Brady still had his health, for which his wife had instructed friends via email to pray for.

That will have to be his consolation prize after not being able to put together the kind of game-winning drive that has become so much of his legacy. This time it was the Giants defense that finally got the best of Brady, stopping him when it mattered most to ensure a fourth Vince Lombardi Trophy that will soon adorn the trophy case at their practice facility in the Meadowlands.

Eli Manning was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLVI and it was well deserved. But the Giants proved defense wins championships, especially when theirs stopped Brady with the ball and the chance to steal the game.

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“It’s a scenario you dream about as a child when you’re running around with a football in your hand and you have a minute to make a stop to be a world champion,” linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka would say. “It’s as pressure filled as you can get, but the way we responded makes me proud to play for New York.”

The common thinking going into the Super Bowl was the quarterback who had the ball last would win. He didn’t. Brady had a chance to add to legend, getting the ball with 57 seconds to play, trailing 21-17. He had 80 yards to cover.

But this Giants defense made all of its predecessors proud. There will be no parade for Brady as he promised at that pep rally in Boston a week ago. That Patriots only got as far as their 49 before Brady was forced to throw a desperation Hail Mary that was slapped down by safety Kenny Phillips on the game’s final play.

It was the last of four straight scoreless possessions for the Patriots, who saw Manning and the Giants defense dominate the fourth quarter.

“This entire game went pretty much how the season went,” said Kiwanuka, an Indianapolis native. “We were up. We were down. We had to count on the offense and then it was up to us on the defensive side to step up and win the game, which we did.”

The Giants beat the Patriots for the second time in five years in a Super Bowl because the defense finally figured out how to contain Brady. He had riddled them from most of three quarters, completing a Super Bowl record 16 straight passes at one point. He also engineered touchdowns on consecutive drives of 96 and 79 that bridged the second quarter and the third.

To that point, Brady had negated the Giants pass rush with quick throws mostly to Wes Welker, Danny Woodhead and tight end Aaron Hernandez. Every time the Giants tried to cover them with a linebacker, Brady exploited the mismatch.

But then Giants began to mix their coverages late in the third quarter and into the fourth. They alternated from man, to zone to press coverage.

“We wanted to keep [Brady] off-balance and let the guys up front go to work,” said Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell. “We went to more zone to limit mismatches. We had a special man coverage that included dropping the safeties down.”

It worked.

First Justin Tuck sacked Brady to end one drive, then linebacker Chase Blackburn made an interception to end another. Manning rallied the Giants from a 17-9 deficit, but when it came to the final minute, Brady had the ball. In the end, the Giants won the trophy.

“It was a sweet victory, especially the way it came down,” linebacker Michael Boley said. “It came down to the defense and we wanted it on us.”

It came down to a Giants defense that proved it can still win championships.