The praise has been flowing in for Eli Manning since the quarterback led the Giants to victory over the Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl. (AP)

In the immediate aftermath of the Giants’ 21-17 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI Sunday night, several major national publications and outlets tried to dissect and figure out what happened at Lucas Oil Stadium, as well as the long-lasting effects of this game moving forward.

Sports Illustrated senior NFL writer Peter King, in his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback piece, wrote that there is no quarterback he would rather have in the final two minutes with the game on the line than Eli Manning.

Wrote King: I still can’t get over that throw from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham. As much as I respect the catch (it will be the greatest of Manningham’s career, no matter how long he plays), I am in awe of the throw. How did Manning make that throw? Why make that throw? Why did he pick the target of the guy with a corner in coverage and a safety flying over to crush Manningham? The 38-yard throw — which began an 88-yard, Super Bowl-winning touchdown drive that Bill Belichick will see in his nightmares — is just one more reason to never, ever question how good Eli Manning is. He will have some crappy games the rest of his career, because two or three times a year he stinks. But I ask you: What quarterback alive do you want with the ball in his hands in the last two minutes of a big game?

Thought so. Eli Manning.

Despite the three Super Bowl rings and the five Super Bowl appearances that Belichick and Tom Brady have amassed in their time together, Mike Freeman of CBS Sports feels that the legacies of both men will suffer as a result of the Patriots’ second loss to the Giants in a Super Bowl.

Wrote Freeman: This was both Brady’s finest moment and his worst. The same could be said for Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Both are among the best in history. Both have forgotten more about their craft than most will ever know but there is no question about the following: their impressive legacies take a hit. A pretty good sized one, too.

There are some already reassessing the Patriots legacy. Noting that the Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since the Spygate scandal, Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison tweeted just minutes after the game: “Told you, cheaters never win!!!!!!!!!”

Brady has been beaten twice now by Eli Manning in the biggest of spots and Belichick has lost to Coughlin the same. That’s not great for legacies. That’s what you call rebuttal material.

With otherwise sterling legacies and reputations now under question, some observers, like Bill Reiter of Fox Sports, wonders whether Sunday night’s loss may have signaled the end of the Patriots’ run as title contenders.

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Tom Coughlin and the Giants are the toast of New York after Sunday's Super Bowl win over the Patriots. (AP)

With the Giants completing their full transformation from 7-7 and on life support Dec. 17 to Super Bowl champions Sunday night, the New York media reflected on what the game meant for the teams and players involved in the win.

For several New York writers, individual legacies were forged last night, at least for the Giants.

Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post writes that, now with his second career Super Bowl notched, Giants coach Tom Coughlin should now be a lock for the Hall of Fame.

Wrote Vaccaro: He’s been up and down and over and out, time and again, yet now, after this, after these two improbable championships, there is little question that whenever Coughlin decides he is done — and that will be entirely his decision now, make no mistake — he will take the passing lane to Canton, to the Hall of Fame, to a bronze bust and immortality. In so many ways, this was the season he came as close as he ever has to channeling his hero, John Wooden, the old UCLA basketball coach. As late as Saturday night, gathering his team for one last meeting, Coughlin preached an old football psalm.

One last time, he told them, “Championships are won by teams who love one another. Just like this team does.”

Continuing with the praise for Coughlin, Hank Gola of the New York Daily News feels that Coughlin and the Giants coaching staff, for a second time in two Super Bowls, managed to outcoach Bill Belichick and the Patriots staff.

Wrote Gola: Bill Belichick played rope a dope Sunday, nearly sending another game plan to the Hall of Fame. But all it took was for Eli Manning and Mario Manningham to land one late punch, an example of that perseverance that carried the Giants to another Super Bowl championship.

“They were going to play it very conservatively defensively,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said after watching another game-winning drive. “They were going to see if we had the patience and discipline to throw the ball underneath and run quite frankly, we had some chances but we shot ourselves in the foot. We thought if we could stay close, we’ve been very good in the fourth quarter.”

After causing a stir in the postgame Sunday night by declaring that the Giants “decapitated” the Patriots, Brandon Jacobs made another bold proclamation when he said that Manning, now with his second career Super Bowl victory, is the best quarterback in the NFL in an article by Steve Serby of the Post.

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Mario Manningham after his catch helps Giants beat Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. (Mike Petraglia, WEEI.com)

INDIANAPOLIS — This time it was the feet — not the hands — of the receiver that killed the Patriots during the game-winning drive.

Four years ago, David Tyree clutched the ball to the top of his helmet as Rodney Harrison helplessly looked on. On Sunday night, it was Mario Manningham tiptoeing on the left sideline for a 38-yard reception on the opening play of an 88-yard game-winning drive as Eli Manning did it again to the Patriots.

“They’re both spectacular catches,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “I think with Mario’s, the way he kept his feet in bounds and held onto the ball going out of bounds was a remarkable thing. Of course, David’s is forever and that’s the history. That’s never going to change anything. His was incredible. This just continues along in that fashion.”

Indeed, Manningham caught the ball and managed to get both feet down before being pushed out of bounds by Patrick Chung at midfield.

“When [officials] were on the sideline [indicating good catch], I finally realized we might win this,” Manningham said.

“He had both feet down,” Chung said. “Good throw, good catch.”

The man who made the throw — Super Bowl XLVI MVP Eli Manning — again won the respect of his teammates like Manningham for coming through in the clutch.

“He’s a playmaker,” Manningham said of Manning. “That’s what he does. I’m putting Eli in his own category. A lot of quarterbacks don’t talk but you really never hear Eli talk negative about his teammates at a news conference. He just knows what to do and how to carry himself.”

As for comparisons to Tyree’s miraculous catch with Rodney Harrison draped all over him, Manningham took it all in stride.

“If I do, I do, If I don’t, I don’t. We won. I’m not thinking about that. If that’s how it’s going to be, then that’s how it’s going to be,” Manningham said.

Eli Manning has two Super Bowl wins over Tom Brady and the Patriots. (AP)

In the end, Eli Manning outplayed Tom Brady on the biggest stage in professional sports.

Again.

Brady put up perfectly respectable numbers in Super Bowl XLVI — 27-of-41 for 276 yards and two TDs — but Eli was better when it mattered most.

Eli Manning owns the Patriots, which means he owns Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Plain and simple. Eli will never be Brady on a historical scale — though he punched a ticket to Canton on Sunday night — but I guarantee you there isn’t a Giants fan alive who would trade quarterbacks now.

Eli has a 2-0 Super Bowl head-to-head edge over the best quarterback of this era (and that’s as far as we can go with that, the title of Greatest of All Time isn’t going to be Brady’s; two losses to a less-than-immortal QB means Joe Montana can wait for the next guy to come along) and the coach of his generation (again, that’s it — two losses to a very good but not all-timer in Tom Coughlin ends any Vince Lombardi debate).

And these aren’t wins where he stayed out of the way and let the defense do its work. This isn’t Trent Dilfer. Eli Manning has led the Giants on two game-winning, fourth-quarter TD drives in insanely pressure-packed situations and has done it with almost incomprehensible calm. I’ll count the Tyree catch as half-fluke, half-skill, but the throw to Mario Manningham — forget the catch itself for a moment — was as good as you’ll ever see in that situation. Manning then competed four of his next five passes on the final drive, setting up Ahmad Bradshaw‘s bizarre TD rush. (And I was fine with the Patriots letting the Giants score there — does anyone doubt Eli would have completed a TD on the very next play if the Giants let him throw?)

In the fourth quarters of the two Super Bowl wins, Manning was a combined 19-of-29 for 268 yards and two TDs with zero interceptions. In the fourth quarter on Sunday, Tom Brady was 6-of-14 for 64 yards with an INT.

Look, Brady was Brady on exactly two drives — the 96-yard TD drive to close out the first half and the 79-yard drive to open the second half. He was 16-of-16 for 154 yards and two TDs on the two drives, just a master class in clock management, patience and accuracy. The rest of the game he was mediocre at best, 11-of-25 for 122 yards, no TDs and the poorly thrown INT intended for a clearly hobbled (no way he plays if that’s an October game, that was a four, five-week injury) Rob Gronkowski.

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Illustration courtesy of Ryan Maguire

Even amidst the constant bustle in a city that proudly never sleeps, the Super Bowl tends to make a fair share of noise. And with the hometown Giants playing tonight on football’s biggest stage, the New York newspapers are unsurprisingly dominated by Super Bowl XLVI.

Beginning right where the Patriots and Giants left off in Super Bowl XLII in 2008, Steve Serby of the New York Post predicts another Giants victory behind the arm of Eli Manning and his ability to once again best Tom Brady.

Wrote Serby: It used to be that Tom Brady was the last man you would want standing between you and the Lombardi Trophy. It was Eli Manning who shattered Brady’s aura of invincibility one magical, momentous night four years ago, and it is Eli Manning who will deliver an emphatic reminder tonight against Brady and the Patriots and bring the Lombardi Trophy back home. It is Eli Manning who has Brady’s number, and it is Eli Manning, more than any Giant, who knows how to finish. It is Eli Manning, unlike any other New York quarterback, who has not trembled at the sight of the diabolical man in the hoodie on the enemy sidelines, Darth [Bill] Belichick.

It is Eli Manning who shows up at Super Bowl XLVI with the right arm and brain his big brother always had and the toughness Phil Simms always displayed. It is Eli Manning who will be cheered wildly by the pro-Giants crowd inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and by fans all so eager to adopt Peyton’s little brother. “I think he’s battle-hardened,” Bill Parcells said. Now do you understand why Gisele wants family and friends to pray for Tommy? Yes, Eli is in Brady’s class … and Manning doesn’t have to flinch at the menace of Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck coming for his head.

Building on Serby’s final point, George Willis of the Post wrote that the Giants defensive line is ready to pressure, fluster and neutralize Brady just as it memorably did in the last Super Bowl match-up between these two teams.

Wrote Willis: It’s a chance to put the finishing touches on a season of triumph, which at one point looked much like one of misery. Tonight, this unit without a nickname will chase Brady and history. It all comes down to simple math, really. There won’t be enough New England blockers to double team Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora, Chris Canty and Dave Tollefson on the same play, which means Brady is going to be under pressure. The frequency of how much that happens and the amount of disruption caused will determine if the Giants beat the Patriots.

Many have speculated and talked at length about the factor of revenge in this year’s Super Bowl, given the history that exists between these teams and franchises. Some, most notably Patriots players, have downplayed the importance of revenge.

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Tom Brady will look to reverse a downward trend in big games when he leads the Patriots against the Giants in Sunday's Super Bowl. (AP)

In sports, there are revered and fundamental truths, statements and realities that are unquestioned and rarely debated.

Principally among them, especially in New England, is this: Tom Brady will always find a way to perform and help put his team in a position to win with the game on the line. In short, Brady is a clutch player and it’s that simple.

It is a reputation that Brady has deservedly built over the course of his distinguished career, with late-game heroics in big-game, high-pressure situations cementing his legacy as a winner.

But statistics from the 2011 season paint an entirely different picture of the revered quarterback. If anything, they show a decline in Brady’s late-game statistical performance from years when the Patriots captured the Super Bowl.

In the 2011 season in games decided by 0-7 points, Brady has completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions, all of which add up to a 90.8 passer rating, a mark that places him below Aaron Rodgers (119.2), Tony Romo (98.1), Matthew Stafford (98.0), Drew Brees (97.5) and Eli Manning (92.9).

Brady’s passer rating in games decided by 0-7 points is also down from three of the four years in which the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl.

The problem hasn’t even just been when Brady’s production has dipped. It’s also been when it’s spiked, as he has performed significantly better in games which the Patriots have won by 15 or more.

Compared to his 90.8 rating in closely-contested games, Brady has a passer rating of 119.0 in games that the Patriots won by more than two touchdowns.

While it’s easy to assume that a quarterback performs better when his team is firmly in control of the game, Brady has a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 1.6-to-1 in those 0-7 point games. As for that number in games decided by 15 or more? 13-1.

That contrast in performance is in fact a contrast to the rest of Brady’s career, at least in the Patriots’ most successful seasons.

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Illustration courtesy of Ryan Maguire

So now we know that Tom Brady once had his nails painted by his sisters. Thanks, Media Day. Wondering what a Day of Crazy looks like? Ask and you shall receive. As for WEEI.com’s coverage…

YES, THERE WAS SOME NEWS ON MEDIA DAY

– Rob Gronkowski showed up without a boot on his foot at media day.

– Whereas Gronkowski’s status for the game remains to be determined, the Patriots will feature a significant presence back on their line. Offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia told WEEI.com’s Chris Price that Sebastian Vollmer will be available for the Super Bowl. Even if Vollmer is available for just a few snaps, Scarnecchia added, his impact will be significant.

– Meanwhile, running back Stevan Ridley told WEEI.com’s Kirk Minihane that he “definitely” will be active for the Super Bowl after being an inactive in the AFC championship game, presumably for letting loose a couple of fumbles.

– There has not been a suggestion that Matt Light‘s availability for the Super Bowl is in question. He was, however, a no-show on Media Day due to a descent into the Hades of intestinal turmoil, as Mike Petraglia chronicles.

– Amidst all of the comings and goings, Christopher Price says that the Super Bowl ultimately will come down to the performance of the Patriots offensive line against the Giants defensive front. He breaks down that task here.

HOW DO YOU COUNT TO OCHO?

– The absurdity of Media Day has come and gone. There is a very strong chance that, with it, so, too, has the relevance of Chad Ochocinco to this Super Bowl.

Despite the fact that he did not have a podium, the Patriots’ wide receiver was surrounded by a throng of reporters and captivated the crowd with all kinds of interesting and sometimes contradictory comments. He said that being in the Super Bowl was a dream come true and dismissed the notion that the experience was bittersweet. But he also claimed that even a Super Bowl victory would not remove the frustration of the season.

Unanswered? Whether he will be a contributor on Sunday. Minihane says that these are the last days of Ochocinco in a Patriots uniform, and that no group hugs appear to be forthcoming on his way out the door.

THE MOUTH(S) THAT ROARED: NEW YORK AND THE GIANTS GO THE INFLAMMATORY ROUTE IN DISCUSSING THE PATRIOTS Read the rest of this entry »