GLENDALE, Ariz. - Plaxico Burress wasn't sure what Ellis Hobbs was thinking, but he knew for sure what the New England cornerback wasn't doing.
"He was about 5 yards off of me," said the Giants' receiver, moments after snaring the winning catch late in New York's startling 17-14 Super Bowl XLII victory here last night over the Patriots. "And I don't know why, but he stopped moving his feet, and once he did, I knew I had him."
Burress, the former Steeler who signed with the Giants as a free agent in 2005, first threw a slight deke Hobbs's way, which froze the cornerback just inside the goal line. Once Hobbs bought the fake, Burress easily slid by, offering Eli Manning the perfect 6-foot-5-inch target alone in the end zone. With little to see all day, Manning all of a sudden had the Empire State Building standing there to hit from 13 yards away with 35 seconds to play.
"I gave him a move, and Eli put it up," said Burress, held without a touchdown in his previous three postseason games this season. "Once that ball was in the air, I looked at it all the way in."
It was a fine ending to an interesting week for Burress. Despite the bookies and pundits listing the Patriots as 12-point favorites, Burress predicted his Giants would leave here champions. Everyone laughed. Everyone wondered why he was courting the fury of the three-time Super Bowl champions. But whenever questioned about his bold prediction throughout the week, he didn't back off.
"I don't think I took any heat for it," said Burress. "In fact, we had fun with it."
Burress actually had been iffy to suit up to defend his bold prediction. His legs were banged up after the first three postseason games. And for most of the contest, he was nearly a nonfactor, very similar to the way Randy Moss was minimized in the New England offense through the first three quarters.
On the winning drive, the Giants started out on their 17 with only 2:39 to go. Moments before, the Patriots had moved to a 14-10 lead, Tom Brady hooking up with Moss on a 6-yard TD pass.
"And on our last drive," said Giants receiver Amani Toomer, "Richard Seymour was out there telling us, 'Hey, guys, get ready to go home.' What's the sense in tempting fate like that?"
Eight plays into the drive, fate indeed came around and kicked the Patriots in the head, and heart. Scrambling in the pocket on third and 5 at his 44, Manning uncorked a deep ball that sent David Tyree leaping high into the air 32 yards downfield. With Rodney Harrison defending, Tyree jumped up and snared the ball with his fingertips, hauling it in for a first down at the New England 24 with only 59 seconds to go in regulation.
"What a catch by Tyree," said Burress. "We call him 'Late Hands Incorporated,' and I'll tell you, I don't think I could have made that catch."
"David gets that ball," added Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who coached in Chestnut Hill in the years following the famed Hail Mary pass tossed by Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie - a heave not unlike the one Manning uncorked to Tyree. "I don't know if there's ever been a bigger play in the Super Bowl, at least from my perspective."
Manning followed with a run of his own, under pressure, that got him back to the line of scrimmage. With only 51 seconds to go, another pass to Tyree failed to connect. Six seconds later, Manning connected with Steve Smith on a 12-yarder that brought the ball to New England's 13 with 39 seconds to go. And only four seconds later, with Hobbs faked, frozen, and ready to be embalmed in Boston sports lore, Manning lofted the soft feed Burress's way.
"Plenty of time," said Burress. "I'm just there thinking, 'C'mon down,' and I was watching my feet, to make sure they were inbounds and everything."
"It was just a fade route, and they came with an all-out blitz," said Manning. "They had been playing zone coverage. They came with the all-out blitz, and the corner [Hobbs] sat because he thought we might run something short. [Burress] ran right by him."
The Giants figured the Patriots were coming, and eventually, said Coughlin, they had to try to make their strike.
"And [Manning] went on the fade to Plaxico," said Coughlin. "I couldn't tell if he was in or out. I didn't know where the ball was until the reaction of the crowd."
It was a moment to enjoy, noted Burress, but it would be a mistake, he said, to overlook the fine, if not intimidating, work of the Giants defense.
"I don't think Brady's been hit like that in this league," said Burress. "Our guys were relentless."
"We're them now," added Toomer, playing historian for a moment. "The way they beat the Rams [for New England's first Super Bowl win], we beat them now. And we hit 'em in the mouth."
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.
