…or maybe this wasn’t such a huge one after all? I’m sure a lot of New England Patriots fans were all too aware of how tough the New York Giants played them in that last regular season game and breathed a sigh of relief after Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts were surprisingly eliminated by the San Diego Chargers in their AFC playoff matchup. Seems to me the Pats offensive line and defensive secondary had been living on borrowed time over the last several games, and I, for one, expected no cakewalk.

So it wasn’t surprising to me to see the Pats struggle offensively. The Giants played a ferocious defense all game long and quarterback Tom Brady was fighting for his life for most of the game. That the Pats seemed to be out of sync was displayed by Matt Light’s several costly penalties and the lack of intensity and consistency they seemed to show from the start. But hey, 18-0 is a hell of a burden for a team to carry – Super Bowl or not, you simply can’t be expected to maintain that kind of intensity when your team hasn’t been allowed the luxury of a week or two off during the regular season like everyone else. In the end, the Giants just wanted it more and played like it.

But how about those last five minutes? So many times the Super Bowl has failed to live up to its hype, but last night, in terms of sheer excitement, it was heard to beat those closing minutes of that 4th quarter and all the lead changes.

Congratulations to the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. They deserved it.