FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Super Bowl or midseason game, Eli Manning and the New York Giants are masters of the last-minute comeback against the New England Patriots.
Manning capped a decisive drive eerily similar to the one in the 2008 Super Bowl, throwing a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left and giving the Giants a 24-20 win on Sunday.
“I knew we would win,” Giants running back Brandon Jacobs said. “It definitely took me back to the Super Bowl.”
In that 17-14 victory, Manning threw a 13-yard scoring pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds to go. Four plays earlier, David Tyree trapped Manning’s third- down pass over the middle on top of his helmet for a 32-yard gain.
On Sunday, the teams met in a meaningful game for the first time since then. And Manning threw another completion over the middle to an unheralded receiver on third down, connecting with a leaping Ballard for a 28-yard gain. Five plays later, they hooked up for the winning pass.
“If it was thrown anywhere else, I wouldn’t have caught it,” Ballard said. “You dream about making catches like that.”
Manning, of course, threw all those passes, outplaying Tom Brady, who is known for his fourth-quarter comebacks.
“I’d rather be down by three with a minute-thirty (left) than up by four with a minute-thirty with Tom Brady, with their offense on the field,” Manning said. “You like those situations where you have an opportunity to go win the game.”
The Giants (6-2) kept their two-game lead in the NFC East over the Dallas Cowboys. The Patriots (5-3) are tied with the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, next week’s opponent, atop the AFC East.
“We’ve got half the season to go,” Brady said. “We’ll see what our team’s made of this week.”
The loss ended several impressive streaks: wins in an NFL- record 31 regular-season starts at home for Brady and in 20 regular-season home games for the Patriots.
Brady did throw a touchdown pass for the 24th straight regular- season home games. But the Patriots lost consecutive games for just the third time since the start of the 2003 season.
The Giants won for the sixth time in seven games.
