A MOMENT!
Forgotten gem of Super Bowl XLVI run
like this year’s team, couldn’t run the ball to keep Rodgers on the sidelines. So when Manning got the ball with 41 ticks left in the half, at his own 31, the plan was to chase a field goal. But then on thirdand-1, Ahmad Bradshaw broke off his lone explosive run of the night, a 24-yard scamper that saw him go out-of-bounds at the Green Bay 37 with six seconds to go. That left Manning to drop back, step up in a perfect pocket, and launch a direct bomb to Nicks, who got in front of safety Charles Woodson, then leaped, largely uncontested, to make the grab.
“I remember running down and sizing the ball up,” Nicks says. “I seen Woodson, when I was running down. I felt like he was the only one who would contest it. So I tried to box him out and go for the ball. The ball came right at me.”
Nicks swears the pass was stunningly pinpoint, even though Manning refuses to take credit, insisting that there’s simply no science in any Hail Mary bomb. The Giants had never practiced the play with any full-speed precision; it was something they would work on every Saturday, says guard Chris Snee, but only with receivers running at half-speed against no defense because “the last thing you want is anyone getting hurt doing that.”
“It was a Hail Mary, so you’re just throwing it into the end zone,” Manning says. “You just want to put it up high, you just don’t want to throw it up too early. It’s a luck play, and Hakeem had to be in the right spot at the right time.”
“At the end of the day, it’s run to the end zone and throw it up,” adds Cruz. “We put ourselves in positions and spots, just for logistical purposes and so we have some order, but at the end of the day, it’s backyard football (on that play).”
But this play seemed special when the ball left Manning’s hand, recalls Snee. Hail Marys are the rare plays that offensive linemen get to watch, since defenses rarely bring heavy pass rush, and the end of each play takes so long to unfold. And Snee remembers thinking of Nicks’ oversized hands, hands that had been written about during that playoff run in much the same way writers would later talk about Beckham’s mitts. “I could see the big mitts,” says Snee, who retired before the 2014 season. “He has those enormous hands. It’s just one of those things where as the ball started to come down, I could see Hakeem. I was like, he’s got a chance to catch this. And sure enough . . .” Packer momentum halted. Snee remembers running into the locker room “almost shocked that it worked.” Cruz remembers a silent Lambeau. “It got really quiet there,” Cruz says. “I think eerily, whether you wanted to say it or not, you knew in that moment, that we did something special and we knocked the wind out of that team.” Nicks, who finished the game with seven catches for 165 yards, would learn that for sure several minutes later, when he ran into Greg Jennings in the tunnel on his way to the locker room. He remembers Jennings stopping him, a defeated look in the Packer receiver’s eyes. “Hey, man, cut that out,” Jennings told Nicks. “Calm that down.” Nicks remembers shaking his head. “I was like, ‘I can’t,’” Nicks says. “But that play, it just kind of put the dagger in their heart.” It’s the same dagger that the Giants hope to use against the Packers on Sunday, in another cold NFC playoff game. They’ll arrive with another moribund rushing attack (this one ranked fourthworst in the NFL) and face another on-fire Rodgers. But once again, their stalwart defense will try to keep the game close, close enough for their current third-year, playoffstarved receiver with massive hands, Beckham, to make a game-changing play that sucks the soul from the Packer faithful. Not a bad recipe for victory. “We know what Eli do when he gets in those playoffs,” Nicks says. “And you know what Odell is doing with it. As far as playing-wise, that guy is explosive as hell. So they have everything they need.”