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The New England Patriots earned a place in National Football League history by completing a perfect 16-0 regular season with a 38-35 victory over the battling New York Giants yesterday.
The Patriots became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins went 14-0.
New England turned the tide with a second-half spurt after the Giants had taken a 28-16 lead with a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress with nine minutes 12 seconds left in the third quarter.
Laurence Maroney danced into the end zone from six yards out to make it 28-23 and, with less than four minutes gone in the fourth quarter, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady hit favorite receiver Randy Moss with a 65-yard bomb to grab the lead.
Brady's strike to Moss, who had dropped a wide open deep pass on the previous play, was their second touchdown hook-up of the game and gave Brady the NFL record for most touchdown passes in a season (50) and Moss the record for most touchdown catches (23).
"I think it's a lot of hard work," Brady said.
"I'm proud of this team."
Asked about the go-ahead heave to Moss streaking down the sideline, Brady said: "I threw it about as far as I could and he tracked it down.
"16-0," he said with pride.
"We're down in the third quarter and the crowd was into it and we found a way to win it. That's what it's going to be like down the stretch. I just hope we can continue to play this type of football."
New England, who get a first-round bye when the playoffs begin next weekend, also set an NFL record for most points in a season with 589, eclipsing the 1998 mark of 556 set by the Minnesota Vikings.
The Giants (10-6) play a wildcard round game next week against the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin was disappointed with the defeat but proud of the effort from his players.
"The frustrating part of that is to play as hard as we did and to lose. We're not very happy. But I will say this, there's nothing but positives," he said.
"Our players played hard. We gave it everything we had."
- REUTERS
