Four Greatest Playoff Games In The Last 10 Years

#1 – Super Bowl XLVI

New York Giants 21 – New England Patriots 17

Super Bowl XLVI - New York Giants Victory Parade

The Giants were not expected to be in the Super Bowl. They finished the regular season 9 – 7, and won the conference championship game against the San Francisco 49ers on a fumble recovery in overtime that led to the game-winning field goal by Lawrence Tynes. New England Patriots finished 13 – 3 for the season and were the clear favorites in this match-up. No one expected the Giants to come close in this game. Well, the Giants do have one of the Mannings as their quarterback.

The Giants came out fearless. There was a very rare penalty of intentional grounding on Tom Brady, while in his team's own endzone, which caused a rare safety, giving the Giants two points to began the game with. Victor Cruz then received a pass from Eli Manning for a touchdown, giving the Giants a 9 – 0 lead. The Patriots did not score in the first quarter. The roles switched in the second quarter. The Giants looked more like the Patriots, minus the safety, on the offensive side. The Patriots scored off a field goal by Stephen Gostkowski and a touchdown by Danny Woodhead to take a 10 – 9 lead.

Patriots took the field after halftime and scored another passing touchdown as Brady found Aaron Hernandez. The score became 17 – 9 with Giants trailing after an extra point by Gostkowski. Little did the Patriots know this would be their last time scoring in this game. Manning began to attack the defenders who were guarding Hakeem Nicks, Jake Ballard and Mario Manningham on the next drive while throwing the ball.

He threw the ball in some of the smallest windows where only his receivers were able to catch it. Their first drive led to a field goal. Giants were able to stop Patriots on the next play and forced them to punt. Manning and the Giants stuck with the previous drive's blueprint. More of a run option was tried with Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs, and two in the air plays to Bear Pascoe and Nicks before kicking another field goal. The made field goal decreased the Patriots' lead to 15 – 17.

The fourth quarter was all about defense until 3:46 was left remaining in the game. At that time, Manning received the ball and had the opportunity to have a game-winning play. Manning used his judgment and experience to turn the last three minutes into a game-winning drive. His clutch players were Manningham and Nicks in the air. But the most important play of the game came from running back Bradshaw.

Bradshaw was able to run up the middle for a touchdown without being touched with 1:04 left in the game. Bradshaw tried to stop himself within the one-yard line as he did not want to give Brady an opportunity to drive and win the game. They failed the two-point conversion for the opportunity to go up by six points leaving the score at 21 – 17 to the Giants. The last play of the game came down to a desperation hail mary attempt by Brady. The ball was batted away in the end zone by a Giants defenders and Gronkowski was not in position to catch the deflection. The Giants pulled off the upset to win the Super Bowl.