There was a palpable expectation of history here on a chilly night in the Arizona desert. Super Bowl XLII delivered on that score, but history of a different sort was made on Sunday.

The Giants, 12-point underdogs, ruined the New England Patriots' quest for a perfect season. New York, which lost six of 16 games during the regular season, prevailed 17-14 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

This will be viewed, in the context of history, as one of the greatest upsets in National Football League history.

"Any time you have a team that's 18-0, stop and think about that, in this league," said Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. "That's just an incredible accomplishment for them.

"But our team, we've been building momentum and building momentum. If you're going to have a chance to win, you're going to have to play great defense, and we certainly did, really, throughout the entire playoffs, and certainly tonight was a great example of it.

"It was a tremendous team effort all the way around, and just a wonderful way to end this thing."

Quarterback Eli Manning lofted a regal, floating 13-yard pass to Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone -- over Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs -- to put the Giants over the top with 35 seconds left. It was the culmination of the kind of last-minute, game-winning, 12-play, 83-yard drive we have come to expect of Tom Brady.

With 19 completions of 34 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns, Manning was named the Most Valuable Player -- following his brother Peyton, who won the award last year when he led the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI.

"It feels great," Eli Manning said, speaking so uncharacteristically fast it was almost hard to follow him. "It's unbelievable. It's the fight on this team. We find a way to win."

The victory was especially sweet for Manning. Giants defensive end Michael Strahan has often said that Manning faces more pressure than any player in the league -- because he was a No. 1 draft choice, because he plays in New York and because he is the younger brother of Peyton.

Now, that pressure has disappeared. In his fourth season, Manning has a significant lead in the early returns. At the tender age of 27, he has won four playoff games and a title.

The Giants are nothing if not resilient. Because they were technically the visiting team, they won their 11th consecutive game on the road, including all four playoff games.

This was especially sweet for Strahan and wide receiver Amani Toomer, the only holdovers from the 34-7 strafing by the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Strahan, who nearly retired before the season. "I can't believe we came back and won this thing. I don't know when it will sink in -- maybe when I get that fat ring on my finger."

It was the third Super Bowl victory for one of the league's most venerable franchises, to go with the Vince Lombardi trophies won at the end of the 1986 and 1990 seasons.

The Patriots beat the Giants 38-35 in the final regular-season game five weeks ago, but the Giants gained a great deal of confidence in the process. On Sunday, they proved that first meeting was no fluke.

"I don't rank them," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "It's disappointing."

If the Giants had a dream scenario for the opening drive, their first possession, which consumed nine minutes and 59 seconds and required 16 plays, was it. Manning converted his first three third downs (a first-drive record for Super Bowls), but couldn't manage a fourth, when he threw too far underneath to Steve Smith. Lawrence Tynes, who won the NFC title game with an overtime field goal, hit one from 32 yards out to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.

The Patriots answered with a similarly muscular drive but, tellingly, came away with more. On third-and-10 at the Giants' 17-yard line, linebacker Antonio Pierce, his back to the ball, hit Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson as he reached for the ball in the end zone. It was called pass interference and two plays later Laurence Maroney -- who began things with a 43-yard kickoff return -- finished it with a 1-yard run three seconds into the second quarter.

The Giants drove inside the Patriots' 20, when something happened to Manning for the first time in these playoffs -- he was intercepted, but through no fault of his own. Smith bobbled a low ball and it popped up, right into the hands of Hobbs. The Giants' defense held the Patriots, but then the offense nearly turned the ball over a second time, but Ahmad Bradshaw recovered his own fumble.

Coming into the game, the key matchup appeared to be the Giants' pass rush -- which produced a league-high 53 sacks over the regular season -- versus the Patriots' offensive line. In the Dec. 29 meeting between the two teams, Brady was only sacked once, and that was minus two starters.

On this night, he would get sacked five times and hurried on nine other occasions.

With all five regular starters in, the Giants sacked Brady on back-to-back plays midway through the second quarter. Kawika Mitchell, feigned a drop-back posture and blitzed. He and Strahan both got a piece of Brady for a 6-yard loss. On the next play, defensive end Justin Tuck blew inside left guard Logan Mankins and leveled Brady.

The Giants had a terrific opportunity to make it a one-point game with a little over two minutes left in the half, but a crazy circus play worked against them. Patriots' linebacker Adalius Thomas knocked the ball loose from Manning and Bradshaw tried to knock the ball out of bounds. It stayed in, and Smith recovered for what would have been a first down. But Bradshaw was flagged for an illegal touch -- knocking the ball forward -- and the Giants were eventually forced to punt.

The Patriots were driving down the field at the end of the half, when Tuck hit Brady again, this time from behind, and knocked the ball loose. The Giants recovered and a Hail Mary fell incomplete in the New England end zone to end a curiously quiet first half.

At halftime, the Giants had run 34 plays to 27 by the Patriots, and possessed the ball for 19 minutes and 27 seconds of 30 minutes. And yet, they trailed by the modest margin of 7-3.

Tuck, who recently signed a contract extension, had six tackles at the half , two sacks and a forced fumble. Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo created pressure with a variety of looks (one time he blitzed two defensive backs), almost exclusively up the middle.

As a result, the Patriots had a paltry 81 yards at the break, and the offense looked disjointed and unsettled.

With the Spygate scandal and new allegations that the Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams before Super Bowl XXXVI, Belichick has been under fire for violating the moral spirit of competition. Just the same, his anal-retentive nature can be a plus. Belichick successfully challenged a non-call on the Pats' first drive of the third quarter, and a review showed that, indeed, linebacker Chase Blackburn was the 12th man on the field for a punt. The Patriots retained possession, but a Strahan sack eventually led Belichick to pass on a 49-yard field goal attempt.

And so, the Giants continued to hang around.

On first down at their own 20 on the second play of the fourth quarter, Manning flipped a pass to rookie tight end Kevin Boss. He caught it at the 39 and, when safety Rodney Harrison missed the tackle, it was good -- very good -- for a 45-yard play. A few plays later, Manning threaded a perfect 5-yard pass through traffic to David Tyree and the Giants, almost inexplicably, led 10-7 with 11:05 remaining.

It was Tyree's first touchdown of the season.

Naturally, the Patriots came back. Taking over with 7:54 left, Brady moved them down the field, throwing underneath more often than not. And then, on the 12th play of the drive, Brady hit his favorite receiver, Randy Moss. The Giants elected to double Wes Welker inside and left cornerback Corey Webster alone with Moss. When Webster tripped on his backpedal, Moss was wide open for a 7-yard touchdown on third-and-goal.

Manning, however, engineered a terrific drive as time ran down. The signature play: Manning, ducking and spinning, somehow avoided a severe rush and Tyree managed to catch a 33-yard catch -- he initially pinned the ball on his helmet with one hand -- and the Giants had the ball at the Patriots' 24-yard line. With 35 seconds left, Manning hit Burress with a gorgeous 13-yard touchdown pass and the perfect season had congealed, horribly, into the twisted wreckage of a shocking loss.

The Patriots started their final drive on their own 26 with 29 seconds left, but Brady had no magic to offer. Two incomplete passes and a sack preceded the final chance, with 10 seconds left. A long, long pass to Moss fell incomplete and the crowd went absolutely berserk.

For two weeks, the focus was on the Patriots and their date with destiny. Few outside the locker room in East Rutherford, N.J. gave the Giants much of a chance.

So much for perfection. These Giants will take a little something less.

"Fourteen points," said Brady afterward. "That was out lowest total of the year, and it got us beat. It's extremely disappointing. It's not what we planned on. A three-point win -- we're used to being on the better side of those three-point wins." Somewhere, the 1972 Miami Dolphins (17-0) are popping their long-awaited champagne.

"I'm happy for the New York Giants," said former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris, sounding suspiciously happy for himself. "They were the ones who did what we did, what it took to win -- which is exactly what we did 17 times in 1972.

"You can talk about it all you want, but you still have to win every game."