Super Bowl XLII featured the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots in an American football game to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season. In one of the most significant upsets in Super Bowl history, the Giants (14-6) won 17-14, preventing the Patriots (18-1) from becoming the first undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17-0. Instead, the Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, the fifth wild card team to win overall, and the fourth in eleven years. The win was also their first title in 17 years and their third overall.
The game, held on February 3 2008 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, day.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.azsuperbowl.com/game_day.aspx was a rematch of the final game of the regular season. In that contest, the Patriots won 38-35 to complete the first perfect regular season since the aforementioned 1972 Dolphins team, and the first one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. Thus, New England entered Super Bowl XLII as 12-point favorites.
The first three quarters of Super Bowl XLII were largely a defensive battle as both teams combined for only 10 points, with the Patriots leading 7-3 entering into the final quarter. New York finally scored their first touchdown with 11:05 left in the game to take a 10-7 lead. New England eventually responded with a touchdown of their own to take a 14-10 lead with 2:42 left. Then came perhaps the most enduring play of the game: faced with third down and five yards to go from their own 44-yard line with 1:15 remaining, Giants Quarterback Eli Manning avoided what looked like a sack and completed a pass to wide receiver _David Tyree who made a leaping catch (32-yard completion) that put them at New England's 24 yard-line. Four plays later, New York wide receiver Plaxico Burress caught the winning touchdown with 0:35 left. Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who threw both touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, was named the Most Valuable Player.
The telecast was the most-watched Super Bowl of all time, with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States and 148.3 million total viewers watched some part of the game. The broadcast achieved its highest Nielsen ratings (43.3) for the game since Super Bowl XXXIV. It was also the second most-watched TV program of all time in the United States.
