Tynes Kicks Giants Into the Super Bowl
The New York Giants are back in the Super Bowl after defeating the San Francisco 49ers, 20-17, in dramatic fashion. Kicker Lawrence Tynes gave the Giants the victory with a 31 yard field goal helping the Giants upset the second seed.
The game winning kick was set up by Devin Thomas' fumble recovery after 49ers' punt returner, Kyle Williams, lost the ball. Giants' fill-in special teams player Jacquian Williams reached out and stripped the ball from Kyle Williams leading to the fumble.
For Devin Thomas, this was his second fumble recovery of the game. The first one also occurred off a punt and was just as pivotal. Kyle Williams called for a fair catch but the ball hit off his knee. Thomas noticed this and picked up the ball.
The play was blown dead and the refs went under the hood to figure out the call. They noticed that the ball had indeed made contact with Williams' knee and the Giants took over deep into 49ers territory.
The turnover gave way to a score as Eli Manning hit wide receiver Mario Manningham for a 17-yard touchdown giving the Giants a 17-14 lead with just eight minutes left in the game.
Eli Manning, who was praised after the game, totaled 316 passing yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. The numbers were excellent when taking the weather into consideration.
Manning's jersey told another story. It showed that the Niners were blitzing relentlessly. He was hit 20 times and was sacked six times as the Giants offensive line could not protect Manning.
Victor Cruz became Eli's go-to player during the first half. The two connected 10 times and Cruz caught multiple first downs to keep the Giants first scoring drive alive.
Vernon Davis was the Giants poison after catching two long touch downs. The first one went for 73 yards giving the Niners an early lead.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati