Giants quarterback Eli Manning in 2009. (Marianne O'Leary/Flickr)

From Tom Weir's live blog for USA TODAY:

9:55: You have to figure Eli Manning will pick up his second Super Bowl MVP award, after leading the final drive and finishing the night 30-for-40 for 296 yards, with no interceptions. But give Mario Manningham credit for a game-changer, when he made the circus catch under pressure to get the Giants' final drive going strong.

9:53: Giants defend on the Hail Mary. Game over. Gronkowski was close in the end zone, but couldn't pull it in.

9:52: Incomplete. Just five seconds left. Hail Mary time.

9:51: Brady spikes the ball, with 17 seconds left. Then Giants have a gaffe, with 12 men on the field. That moves the ball to midfield, with 9 seconds left.

According to ESPN, the game results boil down to legacy. "Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin are two-time Super Bowl champions," Dan Graziano said in his Rapid Reaction. "The Giants have won their fourth Super Bowl and completed one of the most stunning in-season turnarounds in recent sports history. They were 7-7 after losing their second game of the season to the last-place Redskins but won six in a row to claim their second Super Bowl title in five years. It’s a run that at least rivals and may even top their 2007-08 run, which also culminated in a Super Bowl victory over the Patriots."

Meanwhile, ESPN's Jamison Hensley was unimpressed with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's performance, saying he "fell short" in the big game. "He started off the scoring but not the way he intended," Hensley said in his blog Sunday. "His intentional grounding penalty on the Patriots' first play led to a safety, a strange mistake for a quarterback known for such great awareness."

Hensley gave New England's offense a C, and the team's defense a B-minus.

With the biggest game of the season over once again, football fans look forward to free agency beginning next month, and the NFL Draft coming up in April.

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