Giants win upheld several Super Bowl trends

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The Giants' 17-14 upset of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII Sunday night neatly settled the question of whether New England was actually the greatest team in NFL history.But the game also offered some interesting statistical nuggets to ponder:-- Eli Manning's 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left not only won the game, but it also marked only the second time in Super Bowl history that a lead had changed hands in the final minute. The other was Joe Montana's touchdown to John Taylor with 32 seconds left that won Super Bowl XXIII for the 49ers over the Bengals in 1989. Five other Super Bowls (V, XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI and XXVIII) were decided in the final two minutes, but all were tied before the winning team went ahead. No Super Bowl has ever gone to overtime.-- New York's victory did show the most dominant division when it comes to Super Bowl titles. That would be the NFC East, which now owns 26 percent of the Vince Lombardi trophies (11 of 42) with the Giants and Redskins having three each and the Cowboys with five. The NFC East is also the NFL's only division with three teams that have won Super Bowls in the last 16 years, but New York's is the NFC East's first since Dallas won Super Bowl XXX in 1996. Those 11 banners for the NFC East are easily the most in the league followed by the AFC East, AFC West and NFC West (all with six).-- A 12-point underdog, the Giants became the fifth double-digit underdog to win a Super Bowl following the New York Jets (a 17-point underdog to Baltimore in Super Bowl III), Kansas City (a 13-point underdog to Minnesota in Super Bowl IV), Denver (a 12-pont underdog to Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXII) and New England (a 14-point underdog to St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI). This is a turnaround from 1993-97 when four straight double-digit favorites (Dallas twice, San Francisco and Green Bay) won the Super Bowl by 14 points or more.-- The Giants and Patriots were the 12th Super Bowl rematch of teams that met during the regular season. New York's win makes the team that lost during the season 7-5 in the Super rematch.-- Just as they did in road playoff wins at Dallas and Green Bay, the Giants scored first and won the Super Bowl. But other than the Giants, teams scoring first in the playoffs went a baffling 1-7. So much for early momentum.-- New York is the fourth wild card team to win the Super Bowl in the last 11 years. Prior to this run, the Raiders in 1981 were the only wild card to win it all. The Giants also join the Steelers of two years ago as the only Super Bowl champions to win three playoff games on the road. Overall, wild card teams are now 5-4 in Super Bowls dealing another blow to the myth of the all-important NFL regular season.-- The 17 points the Giants scored is the fewest by a Super Bowl winner since Pittsburgh beat Minnesota, 16-6, to win Super Bowl IX in 1975. Since 1995, 10 of the previous 13 Super Bowl losers either bettered or equaled New York's 17 points.-- The Giants' three-point win marks the sixth time in the last 11 Super Bowls that the game has been decided by seven points or less. In the first 31 Super Bowls, only seven times were the games that close.-- Finally, there's the dreaded scoring curse. In the last 25 years, three teams have set the NFL record for points scored in a season -- the 1983 Redskins (541 points), the 1998 Vikings (556) and this year's Patriots (589). Combined the three went 45-3 in their regular seasons but none went on to win the Super Bowl.(E-mail John Lindsay at lindsayj(at)shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)