Super Bowl MVP Manning ready for repeat performance

Typography

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Just hours after winning the Super Bowl and being named its MVP, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning said he was ready for a repeat performance.

By Steve Ginsburg

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Just hours after winning the Super Bowl and being named its MVP, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning said he was ready for a repeat performance.

"I'm happy today, I'm fired up," Manning told reporters on Monday. "I'm going to enjoy this moment. But you still want to have this feeling again.

"I will still have the same commitment to football (next season). I have to become a better quarterback. That's my goal.

!ADVERTISEMENT!

"Towards the end of the season I was playing well but I have to do it over a whole season. I want to cut down on my mistakes."

Manning, 27, completed 19 of 34 passes for 255 yards while leading the two-touchdown underdog Giants (14-6) to a 17-14 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday.

The soft-spoken Manning guided the Giants to two clutch fourth-quarter touchdown drives to snap the Patriots' 18-game winning streak.

Manning's 13-yard TD strike to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left gave the Giants their first title since 1990 and ended the debate over whether the 2007 Patriots were the NFL's best team ever.

UNFORGETTABLE PLAY

The play that will be remembered for years to come occurred in the Giants' final drive when Manning emerged from the grasp of two Patriots lineman and tossed a 32-yard pass to David Tyree.

With 1:15 left and the Giants trailing 14-10, Tyree outleaped the Patriots' Rodney Harrison and hit the ground at the New England 24 with the ball pinned against his helmet.

Four plays later, Manning found Burress for the game winner.

Manning did not realize how spectacular Tyree's catch was until he saw the replays on television.

"Last night when I got home, I wanted to see it," he said. "I saw a little bit of it on the field but didn't get to appreciate what a great catch it was.

"For him to hold on to that ball, hold it against his helmet. And get pulled back. And guys swiping at the ball. It was just a great individual effort."

Manning's effort on that play was just as crucial.

"People were asking me how I got out of that jam I was in. I said, 'I really don't know. They never pulled me down.' I felt them holding me but I never felt anybody pull me to the ground.

"I stayed a alive. I saw David in the middle of the field. I gave him a shot to make a catch. An unbelievable catch."

(Editing by John Mehaffey)