Can anyone get in touch with the guy who called the Giants’ 38-35 near miss against the Pats in Week 17 “a mere historic footnote compared to what™s in store during the postseason”? Aside from owing his 2nd apology of the month to Colonel Coughlin and Skittish Eli he (ok, I) oughta be searching for a big bottle of BBQ sauce to pour over tonight’s plate of hot crow.

I’m only half kidding about the headline above. The Jersey Giants’ 17-14 upset of previously unbeaten New England might not have the same cultural resonance as the Jets’ unlikely result over the Colts in Super Bowl III, but today’s game was played on a far bigger global stage and delivered a knockout blow to figures (Brady, the Hooded Casanova) every bit as iconic in their era as Don Shula and uh, Earl Morrall were in theirs.

Only a few months ago, the notion of Eli Manning being mentioned in the same breath as Tom Brady would’ve been considered laughable. Tonight, the former engineered a heroic game-winning, 12 play/83 yard drive that was nothing if not Brady-like. Though Plaxico Burress’ 25 yard TD catch with 37 seconds remaining was the game’s decisive play, an reception by David Tyree (above) on 3 and 5 moments earlier was an acrobatic achievement of Lynn Swann quality. Manning completed said pass after nearly being sacked, evading the grasp of multiple defenders in what has to be considered one of the more pivotal plays in franchise history.

Burress was roundly ridiculed this week for predicting a 24-17 scoreline and Brady in particular, took umbrage at the suggestion his record setting offense would be held to 17. As it turns out, the Pats were held to a mere two TD’s in a defensive struggle that failed to catch fire until the final 5 minutes.

Presumably, neither Boston or Foxboro will be referred to as Titletown again — at least not until June. And after the Giants’ 11th road win of the year, I’ve got two questions remaining :

a) who will be first to post a gloating video tomorrow morning, Mercury Morris or Carl?
b) does Jeremy Shockey’s broken leg get a full winner’s share?