There was magic in the Big Apple in 2007. The Giants entered the season as a team on the cusp. Fans were questioning the coaching skills of Tom Coughlin and whispers were circulating about his dismissal. Eli Manning, like all New York quarterbacks, was under intense pressure to deliver Pro Bowl stats in his fourth season. The Giants early season performance didn’t help. An 0-2 start, featuring NFC losses to the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, had fans screaming for heads to roll. Then the wheel of karma began to spin. New York got their feet wet with a road win against the Washington Redskins, and followed it up with a home victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. Four games later they were 6-2 and beginning to jell.

Something unusual was going on in The Meadowlands. The Giants never capitalized on the home field advantage. By the time the last game of the season rolled around New York was 3-4 at home but a surprising 7-1 on the road. Meeting the New England Patriots in the season finale the Gants played their best game of the regular season, falling 38-35 but proving to themselves that they could play with the big boys. Now it was on to the playoffs as a Wild Card team. A road team.

Handily polishing off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the opening round, New York traveled to Cowboys Stadium to take on the Dallas Cowboys, a team with two wins against the Giants already under their belts. The road magic continued and Eli Manning outplayed Tony Romo to lead his team to a 21-17 win. Lambeau Field and the Green Bay Packers were next. The Frozen Tundra was at its best, but New York had the answer to the Packer mystique, taking an overtime win in the snow and cementing the NFC Championship. New York had just completed a remarkable 10 game road winning streak to put themselves in the Super Bowl.

From there it got even better. The New England Patriots owned a 17 game winning streak and the first perfect NFL regular season game record since 1972. The Giants were two touchdown underdogs. But they were on the road and they had already proven they could play with New England. And so, Eli Manning’s 13-yard pass to Plaxico Burress with a mere 35 seconds left on the clock gave New York what almost nobody could have predicted early in the season. A Super Bowl victory.