And just like that, the New York Giants led the New England Patriots 21-17 with :57 seconds left in Super Bowl XLVI and we didn’t know whether to celebrate or be disappointed. So, by default, we celebrated — even if the reaction was a little delayed. After all, wouldn’t it be better to force the immortal Tom Brady to go the length of the field and score a touchdown to win, rather than relying on Tynes to boot a high-pressure kick and then give Brady the ball back needing only a field goal to win?

The decision will be debated, for sure, but not as much as it would have been if the outcome of the game was any different than what it ultimately was. As it were, Brady’s last second Hail Mary pass ended up hitting the turf  just out of the reach of Rob Gronkowski’s fingers and scooted out the back of the end zone, and then — cue the confetti, for the second time in four years.

It’s still far too early for me to accurately put this Super Bowl run and eventual title in the proper perspective, but I can say this much: this one seemed more deserved, like we really earned it, at least more so than 2007. Although 2007 was special for me in its own way (it was the first Giants title that I was old enough to appreciate, we ruined the Pats’ perfect season, etc.), my immediate feeling is that I will come to cherish this victory even more when I look back on it years from now.

To compare the two would be foolish at this moment, before the initial wave of euphoria from last night’s victory has even worn off. If I could put it simply though, I would say that when it comes down to it the 2007 title felt like it was a series of serendipitous events that carried us like a team of destiny, whereas this run felt like we scratched, clawed and fought to the death every step of the way, catching fire at the right time and straight-up beating the best teams in football in the rawest, most pure way possible.

And maybe there are other factors in there somewhere too. Maybe it’s because of the fact that this run seemingly came out of nowhere. Maybe it’s because of the fact that every single win in this six-game stretch dating back to Christmas Eve against the Jets has felt like one big sigh of relief after another. Or maybe it’s because of the fact that I already have such fond memories surrounding each and every playoff game that made up this run. From being there in MetLife Stadium to witness the first home playoff win in the new building against Atlanta, to the improbable win over the 15-1 Packers, to watching us capture the NFC title on a beach in St. Maarten, and finally watching Big Blue wrap up another Super Bowl title in the last minute with my Dad, the only other Giants fan I know more diehard than I am, every step of the way was memorable.

A few years from now, I’ll probably be able to better assess the two Super Bowl runs and how they compare to one another, but right now, I’ll just stick to enjoying this one.

So soak it all in, Giants fans. After the season we just went through, that might very well have taken a few years off of my life, we sure as hell deserve it.

Quarterback: Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady

If this breakdown was comparing how Eli Manning and Tom Brady played last week, then the outcome might be a little different. If it was comparing which quarterback was hottest at this very moment, then the outcome would definitely be different. But if we’re just comparing Eli Manning and Tom Brady straight-up, with no stipulations, then it’s hard not to tip the scales in Brady’s favor. I know Eli has won his last two games against Tom and I know he’s probably playing the best football of his life right now, but the fact is that Tom Brady is still Tom Brady, official UGG’s spokesman, until further notice. The fact that this is even as close as it is speaks volumes to how well Eli Manning is playing right now. I’ll leave it at that.

Slight Edge: Pats

Running Backs: Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw vs. BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead

If this category was “Which running back tandem has the best names” then I’d have to give it to the Patriots. BenJarvus Green-Ellis almost has half as many names as he had rushing touchdowns during the regular season and Danny Woodhead sounds like a comic book character. But if we’re comparing them based on which tandem is more likely to swing the momentum of the game, it’s going to have to be Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. Bradshaw is the heart of the Giants offense, even if his numbers may not always show it. He didn’t play the last time the Giants and Pats met back in Week 9 and the Giants still came out on top, so having him around this time should be a big plus for Big Blue. And if Brandon Jacobs can break a few big runs, the Patriots defense will have major problems.

Edge: Giants

Wide Receivers: Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Mario Manningham vs. Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Chad Ochocinco

Right now, the Giants have the best wide receiving corps in the NFL and it isn’t even close. Each and every one of those three have had a significant impact on the Giants’ postseason run and they are a major reason why the Giants are going to be playing for the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night. Nicks had enormous games against Atlanta and Green Bay, and when he was locked down against San Francisco, it was Victor Cruz that stepped up with 10 catches for 142 yards. And what about Mario Manningham? Well, he has only quietly scored 3 touchdowns this postseason, one in each game so far. His 3rd-and-15 catch against San Fran to put the Giants up 17-14 was one of the biggest plays of the season.

As for the Patriots receivers, we all know that Welker has had a monster season. Although the New England receivers are the exact polar opposite of the Giants’ squad in that they are more prone to controlling the middle of the field and not known for their big-play tendencies the way Nicks, Cruz and Manningham are, they are still dangerous and equally hard to cover in the 10-20 yard range. Plus, Ochocinco just bought a pair of Beats by Dre headphones for every single player on the Patriots which is probably the most important thing he’s contributed all year.

Edge: Giants

Offensive Line: Chris Snee, David Diehl, Kareem McKenzie, David Baas vs. Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Nate Solder

These two units are going to play an extremely important role in Sunday’s game. If the Patriots offensive line can protect Brady and make sure he isn’t running scared and throwing darts into the ground like Alex Smith during the 4th quarter last week, then the Pats should be in good shape. We all know what can happen if the Giants get pressure on Brady. We saw it in Super Bowl XLII and we saw it in Week 9. This is no secret. For the Giants, their line was simply abused by the 49ers defensive front last week. Manning was hit so many times he could have legally changed his name to Tina Turner. Luckily for the Giants’ line, the Patriots pass rush isn’t nearly as ferocious as San Francisco’s. For now though, and since the play of the Patriots’ line is much more closely connected to their success than the Giants’ line is, I’m going to give the edge to New England.

Edge: Pats

Tight Ends: Jake Ballard, Travis Beckum vs. Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez

Much like the wide receiver match-up, this one isn’t even close. Only instead of being in the Giants’ favor, this one clearly goes to New England. Jake Ballard can hold his own with just about anyone in the league and has had a great season filling the shoes of the departed Kevin Boss, but he’s leagues away from Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Gronkowski shattered tight end records left and right this season and even on a bad ankle, he’s the player that the Giants defense needs to make its number one priority going into Sunday night. His high ankle sprain is going to be the big story leading up to the game and it’s not likely that Gronk will be 100%, but Rob Gronkowski at 75% is still more dangerous than 90% of the tight ends in the league playing at full health. Plus, Aaron Hernandez plays like a wide receiver and the Pats have even started using him as a running back too because apparently their offense is run by a 12-year-old playing Madden.

Edge: Pats

Defensive Line: Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Jason Pierre-Paul, Chris Canty, Linval Joseph vs. Shaun Ellis, Vince Wilfork, Mark Anderson

This unit is the Giants’ bread and butter. They will set the tone of this game and it’s up to the Patriots offensive line to keep them at bay, which will be easier said than done considering no offensive line has been able to successfully do that in over a month and a half. The Giants’ defensive line is a very close-knit group and they have big game experience too. Tuck and Umenyiora both played huge roles in the Super Bowl XLII victory and Tuck sacked Brady twice in that game. In fact, if it wasn’t for Eli Manning’s late game heroics, an argument could have been made to give Tuck the MVP of that game. Simply put, this game will be determined by how much pressure the Giants’ front four can put on Brady.

As for the Patriots, Wilfork had an enormous game against Baltimore last week, and it will be up to the Giants’ offensive line to keep him at bay on Sunday. If it was legal for defensive tackles to eat their way through the offensive line though, Wilfork would be absolutely unstoppable.

Edge: Giants

Linebackers: Michael Boley, Mathias Kiwanuka, Jacquian Williams, Chase Blackburn vs. Brandon Spikes, Rob Ninkovich, Tracy White

This is a tough category to call because the Giants linebackers have been really hit-or-miss all season. Only in the last five weeks have they begun to really gel and play some quality football. Jacquian Williams is finally making plays, Boley and Kiwanuka are finally both 100% healthy and Chase Blackburn went from eating Cheetos on his couch two months ago to playing a major role in another Giants Super Bowl run. It’s weird how football works. The linebackers are going to really be tested on Sunday with Gronk and Hernandez roaming the middle of the field. If they can cover and not let either tight end go all Vernon Davis on them, then they will severely limit the Patriots’ offensive options.

Slight Edge: Giants

Secondary: Kenny Phillips, Corey Webster, Aaron Ross, Deon Grant, Antrel Rolle vs. Devin McCourty, Kyle Arrington, Pat Chung, James Ihedigbo, Sterling Moore

I have to give the edge to the Giants here on principle. The Patriots owned the league’s worst passing defense all season, and even though they’ve looked a little better during the playoffs, you need to remember who they went up against the last two weeks: Tim Tebow and Joe Flacco. Two quarterbacks who aren’t exactly known for lighting it up. The most dangerous receiver they’ve had to cover was probably Demaryius Thomas. Let’s get real here for a second. They haven’t had to face a receiving corps like the one the Giants have since the last time they played the Giants. Plus, if they throw Julian Edelman out there on Cruz or Manningham it’s going to be a blood bath. The one thing the Patriots’ secondary has in its favor is that it’s opportunistic. They get a lot of takeaways, so as long as Eli can play mistake-free football and be careful with his throws like he was last week in San Francisco, then the Giants can avoid playing to the Patriots’ strengths.

Edge: Giants

Special Teams: Lawrence Tynes, Steve Weatherford, Will Blackmon, Devin Thomas vs. Stephen Gostkowski, Zoltan Mesko, Julian Edelman, Wes Welker

The Giants special teams play is probably what won the game for them against the 49ers. Weatherford punted the hell out of the ball all night, Thomas’s two fumble recoveries were responsible for 10 points and he might have singlehandedly put the Giants in the Super Bowl and of course Lawrence Tynes was the one who won it with his kick. But the truth is that Big Blue’s special teams have been shaky all season. Another game like last week’s is probably asking too much, but all they really need to do is play smart, mistake-free football. On the Pats’ side, Gostkowski is a model of efficiency and Edelman and Welker are always dangerous in the return game. We’ll call this one even.

Edge: Even

Head Coach: Coughlin vs. Belichick

For the second time in four years, Tom Coughlin has coached himself off of the hot seat and into the Super Bowl. He’s done a fantastic job of getting the team motivated and prepared down the stretch this season and especially in the playoffs and he’s converted guys like Antrel Rolle and Michael Boley and made them believers. In fact, he might be doing the best coaching job of his career right now. But so is Belichick. He’s taken a team with the 31st ranked defense in the league and brought them within one win of a Super Bowl title, which is amazing given the fact that he has based his entire career up until now on his defensive superiority. Basically this comes down to the fact that Belichick is Belichick — the slight edge here goes to the Pats, even though, much like the Manning-Brady comparison, this is much closer than it would have been a few years ago.

Slight Edge: Pats

Prediction: No way.

I say unusually packed because in those days the stands were typically barren on most Saturdays, with the school desperately giving out tickets to anyone who would fill the seats, to anyone who would even pretend to be interested in a football program that was mightily struggling.

But on that afternoon, midway through the second season of coach Greg Schiano’s tenure, there was a brief glimpse of the hope that Rutgers saw when they hired him away from the very school they were beating that day. Although the Hurricanes would rattle off 28 unanswered points and win the game 42-17, and although Rutgers would finish the season a dismal 1-11, that game and that brief 3-point lead was enough to knock Miami out of their No. 1 ranking for at least one week, and it was certainly enough to restore just a glimmer of hope in a football program that had long been an afterthought in New Jersey sports.

During his 10 years as head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Greg Schiano restored pride in a school and a football program that desperately needed it. The “Birthplace of College Football” could once again proudly declare itself as such without receiving the harsh ridicule that had come to be associated with the scarlet “R” during the 1980′s and 1990′s. To put it plainly, he rebuilt Rutgers football from the ground up, turning it from a rusty and wind-beaten shack on the banks of the Raritan into the proud, gleaming behemoth that it is today (complete with 12,000 new seats and a shiny new jumbotron).

When I arrived at the university in 2005 as a student, I brought with me the hopes that I would one day get to sit in Rutgers Stadium with my fellow students and cheer for a winning football team, a team that I could be proud of, and a team that packed the seats with a sea of Scarlet red and regularly played games on ESPN. The team was coming off of a 4-7 season before I began my freshman year on the banks, and I figured my dream of watching a contender was possible, but still far off.

Boy, was I wrong.

That 2005 season saw Rutgers play in its first bowl game in over two decades, and although we lost, it was certainly a sign of things to come. Little did I know that less than 12 months later, I would be witnessing the game that would put Rutgers football on the map for good and become one of the most exciting moments in the history of the school and the state of New Jersey.

That warm November night in 2006 was when Rutgers football officially went from pretender to contender. No longer was a 25-point loss to a Top 5 team considered a high point. No, we wanted more than that. We wanted to taste victory, we wanted to rush the field, to soak in the beauty of college football relevance, to watch our team lead off that night’s edition of SportsCenter. By erasing a 25-7 deficit and knocking off No. 3 Louisville to remain unbeaten, we got just that.

That week, Rutgers would rise to the highest BCS ranking in school history, at No. 6, and it seemed surreal. In a span of only 5 years, Greg Schiano turned Rutgers football from the laughingstock of the Big East into a legitimate BCS contender, and he did it with a roster loaded with future NFL talent like Ray Rice, Brian Leonard, Kenny Britt, Devin McCourty, Tiquan Underwood and Anthony Davis. No longer was the school begging people to fill the seats of Rutgers Stadium — now they had to build more seats just to fit everyone who wanted to be there, who wanted to witness this transformation. In fact, in my 4 years at Rutgers, I went from easily being able to get free tickets to games to having to enter a lottery just for the chance to get tickets. By my senior year, students had to pay to get in. Crazy, huh?

After receiving five different Coach of the Year awards for his stellar 2006 season, the offers began rolling in for prestigious coaching jobs all over the nation. Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan, you name the vacant head coaching position and chances are that Schiano was offered the job — and turned it down. Born and raised in the state of New Jersey, Schiano was a Jersey boy all the way through. He had helped to resurrect this downtrodden football program and now he was going to stick around and watch it flourish. Or so we had thought.

Less than a month ago, Rutgers defeated Iowa State in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium to pick up its school-record 5th consecutive bowl win, which is now the longest active streak in the nation. With 8 wins or more in five of the last six seasons and two second place finishes in the Big East, Rutgers is now a school that attracts top high school recruits, instead of scaring them away. Just last season, we landed Savon Huggins, one of the top running backs in the nation in high school. What state was he from? New Jersey. In the past, top New Jersey high school players would typically have shunned Rutgers to attend Penn State or Pittsburgh or West Virginia. Now, we had enough clout to snag this in-state talent we so sorely needed.

The 2011 Rutgers football team exceeded most preseason expectations by finishing 9-4. With a young, mostly inexperienced team filled with underclassmen, the fact that this year’s Scarlet Knight squad was able to scratch together 8 regular season wins and an impressive bowl victory over a Big XII school was a big accomplishment and a reason to have hope for the next few years, especially after a disappointing 2010 campaign. With letters of intent being signed next week, Rutgers was gearing up for another successful offseason of recruiting until a bomb was dropped around noon yesterday.

Nobody saw this coming, not even people closely connected to Schiano inside the Rutgers football organization. There had not been a single word uttered about Schiano being considered for an NFL head coaching position until the rumor slipped out yesterday morning and quickly evolved into a full-fledged story.

Schiano was out.

Just like that, after 10 years of building a program, a stadium, a community and salvaging a long-forgotten fanbase, the Greg Schiano era was over. He is headed to Tampa Bay, to the NFL, where many college coaches have tried and failed before him. Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Butch Davis, Bobby Petrino, Dennis Erickson, Lane Kiffin, and the list goes on. It’s not an easy adjustment to make, especially when the pressure is on you from a fanbase that won’t accept a period of rebuilding. The NFL is not like college football, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

You see, here at Rutgers we were used to decades of losing. When Schiano came in before the 2001 season we weren’t expecting a quick turnaround, or even a turnaround at all. Things like that don’t happen overnight in college football. You need recruits, and you need time. In the NFL, things move much faster. The Buccaneers won their division just a few years ago and have a Super Bowl title. Their fans pay a lot of money for tickets and aren’t going to wait around 4 years for Schiano to rebuild. They want to win, and they want to win now.

Will Schiano be just another college coach who fails in the NFL? Will he long to be on the sidelines of High Point Solutions Stadium next October when the Bucs start the season 2-5 and the fans start getting antsy? Only time will tell.

Of course there are college coaches who have succeeded in the NFL too — Jim Harbaugh is a recent one that comes to mind, and Pete Carroll isn’t doing a bad job in Seattle right now, given the scarce amount of talent he was handed. So there’s hope for Schiano in South Florida.

But what about here at Rutgers? I’m not going to pretend that I’m okay with Schiano leaving the way he did, right before one of the biggest weeks of the year for recruitment. I’m not going to pretend I’m happy with his decision to leave after all he’s done for the program. But I won’t be bitter either. I recognize what he did for Rutgers football, and I thank him for that. Without him, we might still be celebrating 7-6 victories over the University of Richmond instead of scanning the weekly AP rankings to see if Rutgers has cracked the Top 25. The Top 25 was a distant and impossible dream when he arrived in Piscataway, and he made it a reality in only five years.

For that, we will thank him, and wish him the best of luck in Tampa Bay. Just as long as they aren’t playing the Giants.

I’ve tried to go back and put myself in the state of mind I was in during the 2008 playoff run, but it’s a little difficult now in hindsight, especially with the knowledge that we did eventually end up winning the Super Bowl. From what I can piece together though, that run seems to have been, in hindsight at least, a lot less taxing and less stressful than this one does, even though both teams were virtually in the same place before the playoffs began — fringe playoff teams that nobody ever expected to compete for a title.

So what’s the deal?

Was it because I didn’t expect the 2008 team to make a run, so the pressure was off and I simply enjoyed each game for what it was? No, it couldn’t have been that because as recent as a month ago I didn’t expect the 2011 Giants to make a run either. In fact, I had already begun mourning the lost season before JPP dragged us out of the grave against Dallas on December 11th.

What about the playoff games themselves? Nope, it couldn’t be that either, because with the exception of Sunday’s game against San Francisco, we’ve won by double digit margins in every game we’ve won on our five-game winning streak. If you compare the margins of victory in the 2008 playoff run leading up to the Super Bowl (10, 4, 3) with this year’s (22, 17, 3) it’s not even close.

There it is though. There’s a key phrase in that last paragraph that might explain everything: five-game winning streak. This season, we have essentially played two more playoff games than we were supposed to play, and we’ve played three more playoff games than the Patriots. Beginning with our Christmas Eve game against the Jets, every single game we’ve played since Week 15 has essentially been a playoff game. We’ve obviously heard this repeated quite a few times throughout this playoff run so far from Tom Coughlin and a handful of others, but I hadn’t yet looked at it from this perspective yet — as the reason why this playoff run feels longer, harder and more draining.

Every single one of our last five games have been must-win, do-or-die situations, and each victory has been like reaching a new plateau and then looking up and seeing how much mountain there is still left to climb. To compound all of that, there is the issue of perspective that goes along with it as well. For example, since the memories of the 2008 playoff run are still fresh and the vivid memory of winning a Super Bowl is still lingering, it’s only natural that we want more of it. That’s another major factor in what has set this run apart from the last one. The feeling of knowing what it’s like to win it all and not being happy with anything less than that. If you could isolate that feeling and recognize it for what it is, things start making more sense.

There has been a tremendous amount of tension released after each victory on this run. Beating the Jets allowed us to breathe a little easier and push past all of the distracting “New York vs. New York/Rex Ryan” hoopla and focus on making the playoffs. Then, beating the Cowboys allowed us to exhale because we clinched the division and got into the playoffs. The Falcons game allowed us to push past the “first home playoff game at MetLife Stadium” milestone and the “haven’t won a home playoff game in 11 years” stigma that was hanging over our heads. Beating a 15-1 Green Bay team almost felt like winning the Super Bowl, but it wasn’t and we had to recognize that we still had to get past San Francisco. When we finally did though, it allowed for the biggest wave of relief yet when Tynes’ kick sailed through the uprights.

But now, there is one final hurdle, and the fact that we’ve been here once before and jumped this hurdle only makes it that much more important. If we lose to New England this time, will the Pats’ revenge taint our fond memories of the SB XLII victory?

There are two weeks for Giants fans to sit back and enjoy the ride and soak in the joy of being in the Super Bowl, but when Sunday, February 5th rolls around, you better believe that anxiety will return. Because even though we weren’t even supposed to be here a month ago, now we are and there is a lot for us to prove. If it seems like there’s more to prove this year than there was in 2008, it’s probably because there is.

Nope, none of those places.

Instead, I was sitting on a beach towel with my feet in the sand. In front of me was the Caribbean sea, and directly behind me was the runway of the only international airport on the island of St. Maarten. Off to the left, where I was faced, was a large movie-theater sized projection screen on top of a beachside bar showing the Giants-49ers game. Thankfully, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were drowned out by the Sunset Bar DJ flowing effortlessly from Drake to Usher to Rick Ross, and occasionally he was drowned out by an incoming Airbus A320 that skimmed the tops of our heads.

How did I end up here watching my team try to fight its way into the Super Bowl? Well, it’s funny you should ask. When our trip was booked, back in the beginning of December, the New York Giants were 6-6 and not exactly looking like they were primed to make a Super Bowl run. When we originally planned the dates, January 15-22 seemed sensible — that is until I realized that our flight home at 5:00 p.m. on the 22nd would put me in the air during the NFC Championship game. Although this shouldn’t have been a concern at that time, my first thought was, “What if the Giants are playing? What would happen? How could I live with myself?”

While the thought seemed crazy at the time, changes were made, dates were altered and I decided that if the Giants, by some crazy, improbable turn of events, actually did make the NFC Championship game, watching it in St. Maarten would be better than not watching it at all.

As fate would have it, those same 6-6 Giants did make the NFC Championship game. They made it by dismantling the Jets, then the Cowboys, then the Falcons and astonishingly, the Packers too. And so on Sunday night, I watched the New York Giants win the NFC title in a decidedly unusual place.

What I had hoped for all week was a game similar to the 2001 NFC title game, a simple, easy thrashing that I could enjoy peacefully while buying many rounds of drinks and ideally not fighting back the urge to throw up during an overtime coin toss. As you all know by now, that is not what I got. Instead, what I got was a four-hour heavyweight bout between two fighters who refused to go down. What I got was possibly the most nerve-wracking second half I can ever remember watching.

The game, in and of itself, was almost like a microcosm of the entire season. It was an emotional roller coaster, filled with ups and downs and just about every frustrating aspect of a football game you can imagine: dumb, drive-extending penalties by the defense, Alex Smith eluding sacks and scrambling for big first downs, Eli getting repeatedly battered and abused by the Niner defense, long touchdown passes to tight ends, stalled drives and long-winded Ed Hochuli explanations. But somehow, despite all of this, the Giants were the ones putting on their championship t-shirts and hats after the game.

Despite the fact that Eli might have spent more time on the ground Sunday night than he did standing up, he brushed off every single hit like it never happened and continue to make the plays that needed to be made. The best thing about his performance on Sunday night was the fact that none of it surprised me. In 2007, I would have been in awe of that 17-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham on 3rd and 15 that put the Giants up 17-14. On Sunday night, I expected it, and number 10 did not disappoint.

With the game tied at 17 and heading into overtime, and with the eerie feeling of deja vu that came with yet another overtime NFC Championship game (only this time with shiny new rules), the sky above us on the beach opened up and it began to rain. At the time, I thought this to be a bad omen. We headed under an awning to watch overtime on a much smaller TV screen, with around 10-15 other people that remained at the bar. By the time Jacquian Williams forced the fumble on Kyle Williams and Devin Thomas put his superhero cape on for the second time that night, I was pacing nervously back and forth chain-smoking and hoping that Trey Junkin was far, far away from Candlestick Park that night.

Although I had hoped that Bradshaw would gallop into the endzone and end it swiftly and painlessly, he got us close enough and when Lawrence Tynes trotted out onto the field to kick the Giants into the Super Bowl for the second time in four years, I thought that I could literally taste my heart in the back of my throat. The camera panned to Bradshaw on the sidelines with his helmet off and his eyes closed. His face titled towards the sky, it appeared as if he was repeatedly whispering “Please make this kick” although I couldn’t quite make it out. But it didn’t matter because that’s what I was whispering, and that’s exactly what Lawrence Tynes did.

In the end, it was the image of Steve Weatherford trying desperately to pull his helmet off and begin celebrating that stuck with me on the drive home. It was the image of Victor Cruz, with wide-eyed wonder, looking like one of those kids in the commercials who’s parents just told him they were going to Disney World.

And now, we have two weeks to prepare for a game we had no business being in as little as a month ago. We have two weeks to prepare for a rematch of what might have been the most exciting Super Bowl ever played. Only this time, we are the team that won the regular season meeting, and it’s the Patriots that will be playing with a chip on their shoulders, looking for redemption, looking for revenge.

Although two weeks is a long time to wait, it will give Giants fans just enough time to savor the joy of being back in the Super Bowl when just about everyone thought it would be impossible. After all, wasn’t it supposed to be the other New York team playing in February? Wasn’t GM Jerry Reese openly criticized back in August for failing to make any substantial offseason moves and saying that he was satisfied with the team he had?

Well, I guess that team that Reese was satisfied with back in August was pretty damn good after all. Now, he is one win away from getting to have the ultimate last laugh while the “Dream Team” and Gang Green watch in envy.

Obviously, everyone is going to compare this Giants team with the 2007-08 team, but we’ll have to wait two weeks to see just how accurate that comparison will be.

Of course, there hasn’t yet been a response from Pacquiao’s camp or from his promotor, Bob Arum, who it seems has done everything in his power so far to make sure that a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight never takes place. But in the past few years, as the non-existent bout has gained unprecedented momentum and has had boxing fans and sports fans all over the world clamoring for it, Mayweather’s camp hasn’t exactly been pushing for it to happen either. After all, Floyd is well aware that fighting Pacquiao would mean putting his undefeated record on the line, and that 42-0 record is something he guards with the tenacity of a mother bear guarding her cubs. His fear that losing at this point in his career would tarnish both his record and his legacy is what has seemingly been holding Mayweather back from this fight.

That is, until now.

Today on Twitter, after learning on Friday that his jail sentence had been pushed back to June 1st, Mayweather went ahead and called out Pacquiao. Although we’ve seen this kind of posturing before from the Welterweight champ, we haven’t quite seen it like this, and we haven’t been armed with the information that Mayweather’s camp has been gearing up for a major bout on May 5th, although the opponent has yet to be determined.

Could that opponent be Pacquiao?

We don’t know, and we most likely won’t know right away, but this may be the first significant step towards the Fight of the Century actually happening. And how bad does boxing need this fight to happen? Really, really bad.

For starters, how many people actually care about boxing these days? The UFC continues to grow in popularity and has begun to expand its events to cable and network television in an effort to widen its fanbase beyond the pay-per-views. The only boxing news that really garners attention anymore, on the internet and on SportsCenter is news about either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. or both.

The money-making potential of this fight, both for the sport of boxing in general, and for the city of Las Vegas — if it were to happen at the MGM Grand, the most likely venue — would be astronomical. It would generate a level of buzz and hype that boxing hasn’t seen in decades, and for all the right reasons.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are both arguably the best boxers in the world right now. They both fight in the same weight class and they are both fighting right now. The only logical thing to do is to have them fight each other. It’s logical for diehard boxing fans, it’s logical even for casual fans of the sport like myself. It’s logical to everyone — everyone except the people that have the power to make this fight happen.

The things that have been holding back this fight are the same things that have been holding back the sport of boxing for the last decade, and the same things that have held it back from competing with rising stars like the UFC and Strikeforce: greed, pride, and ego.

Simply put, the magnitude of this fight would outweigh anything the sport has seen in a long time, and it’s just too much to pass up. Do you realize the amount of hype this fight would generate from the moment it is announced until the moment Mayweather and Pacquiao touch gloves and the opening bell rings? It would be off-the-charts. This fight has been the topic of conversation for years now, at least when it comes to boxing, and it doesn’t even exist yet.

The fight would be an absolute must-watch event for anyone, not only sports fans. Miss it, and you’re stuck being the only one who didn’t see it when it gets talked about in the office on Monday. It would be one of those kinds of events. Those rare fights where everyone stops what they’re doing to find a spot near a TV on a Saturday night. We haven’t seen anything like that since the last Tyson-Holyfield fight. How can anyone pass that up?

I can’t pretend to know who will win the fight, if it ever happens, and I can’t even decide who I would want to see win it anymore. Part of me, the part that loves a good underdog story, would want to see Pacquiao prevail. But another part of me, the part that appreciates a good legacy-defining moment, would think it a pretty impressive feat for Mayweather to not only retain his undefeated record, but to do it by beating perhaps his only true peer in the sport right now, the only other boxer in the world capable of making headlines like he can.

All I know is that I want to see this fight — I need to see this fight. And the truth is, that boxing needs it too.

And then, just as quickly as the thought came, it then vanished. And with every time Jacobs and Bradshaw barreled through the exhausted Falcons defensive line to pick up another first down and with every second that dripped off of the game clock, the thought grew more and more distant until it was replaced with something entirely different: that this was not the same football team that let the season slip away on that December afternoon against Philadelphia. Hell, this was not even the same team that showed up and let Rex Grossman slap them around the field just a few weeks ago.

The Giants team that has showed up for the last three weeks now seems like a brand new Giants team, but at the same time they look awfully familiar. Familiar because we’ve seen this Giants team before. They might have had a few different faces back then, but I’ll be damned if they don’t possess that same kind of intensity, the same kind of “nobody believes in us” mentality that propelled them to a Super Bowl title just four years ago.

Last time, we had Plaxico Burress and Steve Smith carrying the load for us. They’ve both since moved on to greener pastures (greener, as in the color they both now wear, but not necessarily better — both the Jets and Eagles missed this year’s tournament) but we have two new faces that have more than replaced them: Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz.

Last week, it was Victor Cruz supplying the shot of adrenaline via the electrifying 74-yard touchdown. Yesterday, the Falcons secondary made a concerted effort to minimize Cruz’s involvement, and they succeeded. But they forgot about Hakeem Nicks, and Nicks made them pay with a 72-yard touchdown catch of his own, turning on the burners in the secondary and leaving the Falcons in a trail of smoke behind him on the way to a 17-2 lead.

But it was something else that brought back those feelings of ’07 and ’08 yesterday that seemed to be missing for most of this season. It was the defensive intensity, the feeling that we could stop literally anyone when we needed to. Gone and forgotten were those memories of Rex Grossman and Charlie Whitehurst effortlessly converting 3rd and 14 plays as our winded secondary chased fruitlessly.

Yesterday, it was our swarming and unrelenting defensive line that stuffed Matt Ryan on not one, but two 4th and 1 plays that single-handedly changed the complexion of the game. It was that same stellar defense that held Turner “the Burner” to only 41 yards on 15 carries and the same defense that made big-play threats Roddy White and Julio Jones non-factors all day. And it was the same defense that pitched a shut-out against an Atlanta Falcons team that scored 45 points last week in a rout of Tampa Bay.

It seems cliche to invoke the spirits of the past when talking about the present, because we all know that football doesn’t follow any patterns and has a very short memory, but sitting in MetLife Stadium yesterday among 85,000 other towel-waving fans who suddenly believe, it was impossible not to think of the team that brought us to the promised land four years ago, and impossible not to see the similarities that exist within team we watched completely dismantle a confused and overwhelmed Falcons team yesterday.

Although the offense got off to a slow start, it was Eli Manning, the one who has galvanized this team all year and brought us back from the dead countless times, that put the spark into the team with a 14-yard scamper on a huge 3rd and 2 play that was about as beautiful as it was awkward. But he put the team on his back, like he has so many times this season, and carried it for a first down.

From that point on, the New York Giants would never look back.

And now, it’s back to Lambeau we go, with the hopes of rewriting a story that has already been written once before.

Since then, in the 11 years that have passed, the New York Giants have played only two playoff games at the Meadowlands and were thoroughly embarrassed in both. In January of 2006, following a successful 11-5 season in 2005, we were shut out 23-0 by the Carolina Panthers in Eli Manning’s first career playoff game. Three years later, in January of 2009, we had locked up the #1 seed in the NFC at 12-4 and were primed for another Super Bowl run. Then Plaxico Burress decided that the waistband of sweatpants were a great place to hold a loaded gun, and the Eagles beat us 23-11 in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.

Eleven years, two games, two disappointing losses.

Now, on January 8, 2012, the New York Giants will host the first ever playoff game at the new MetLife Stadium. In a season where it was supposed to be the Jets hosting a playoff game and their “little brothers” sitting back and watching them, it’s the Giants who will be extending their season on Sunday, at least for one more week.

On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons will visit New Jersey for an NFC Wild Card playoff game that many Giants fans didn’t think would even be a possibility as little as three weeks ago after that stinker against the Redskins in Week 15.

Matt Ryan and Michael Turner and Roddy White and Julio Jones and everyone else on that dangerous offense with big-play potential will try to exploit the Giants’ pass defense, which is among the worst in the league. But here’s the thing about Matt Ryan and those Atlanta Falcons: they’re a completely different team away from home than they are in the climate-controlled comfort of the Georgia Dome. In fact, if you look at the home-away splits for Matt Ryan, there is a staggering difference. He is markedly better at home than he is on the road. Will the Giants take advantage of that come Sunday? We won’t know for sure until then.

The last time the Matt Ryan-led Falcons visited the Meadowlands, the stadium was still called Giants Stadium and the giant, gleaming, steel erector set of a building that would later be called New Meadowlands Stadium and even later called MetLife Stadium, was still in the process of being built next door. On that unseasonably warm November afternoon, the Giants, behind two Eli Manning touchdown passes to Kevin Boss, had built a 31-17 lead over Atlanta, only to see it evaporate in the 4th quarter. The Falcons would force overtime, but eventually Eli would do what Eli does — and what he has especially been known for this season — and a Lawrence Tynes field goal would give the Giants a 34-31 win, snapping a four-game losing streak.

Since that day, the Giants have moved into a new home, MetLife Stadium, where they are a slightly average 9-7 over the past two seasons. Playing in a bigger building, complete with more bathrooms (same long lines though) more food and the occasional pyrotechnics shooting from the top of the upper deck, the Giants have certainly sold more tickets, but have they truly made this building feel like home yet?

There is no shortage of criticism to be found about the lack of electricity in the crowd since the opening of the new stadium. “Sterile” is the word most often used to describe the atmosphere at home games. The club seats are empty until the second quarter with people stuck in buffet lines and watching the game from the comfort of the Coach’s Club lounge. Those same seats empty out again at halftime and don’t fill up again until the third quarter. The empty feel of the stadium sucks most of the crowd noise out during crucial moments, noise that is filled in with artificial sound pumped through the speakers to attempt to get the crowd going.

These are all problems that were mostly absent from the old Giants Stadium.

There were only two games during this season where I could feel the same electricity filling MetLife Stadium that used to be present on Sundays at Giants Stadium — the game against Green Bay and last Sunday against Dallas. On Sunday, when the Falcons march into MetLife Stadium, it needs to be even louder, even more electric.

This is the first ever playoff game in our new home, and there’s no better way to break it in and make it ours than with a win — a resounding, convincing playoff win. Hopefully we can begin a new era of playoff memories in a new home this Sunday, and hopefully the fans show up and get as loud as possible, because home field advantage doesn’t exist unless there’s an actual advantage to playing at home.

It was a sweet, sweet victory that was made even sweeter by the fact that the Giants were the “road” team in MetLife Stadium on Saturday and had the pleasure of quieting a sea of Jets fans and fire helmet-wearing cheerleaders. Although things got a little harrowing towards the end, the defense came up huge when it needed to and the safety on Mark Sanchez that aborted the Jets’ final chance at a comeback drive before it ever really started was the play that sealed the deal for Big Blue. Seconds later, when Bradshaw pranced across the goal line to make it 29-14, it was pure ecstasy for Giants fans everywhere.

But as we went to sleep on Christmas Eve with visions of Victor Cruz’s electrifying 99-yard touchdown catch dancing in our heads, there was another thought that was struggling to push its way to the front of our conscious: the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, there is one game to go and there is only one team that stands between the New York Giants and their first playoff berth since the 2008 season. For all intents and purposes though, the playoffs began last week for the Giants. The motivation and fire and intensity that was nowhere to be found against Washington two weeks ago, was definitely present against the Jets, thanks in part to Rex Ryan’s week of unabashed trash-talking. Now, it’s the second round of the Giants’ playoffs and Big Blue needs to make like 2007 and dispose of the Cowboys and the battered Tony Romo if they hope to fight another week.

Easier said than done.

It all comes down to one game, a de facto NFC East championship game. The winner will host a playoff game in round one in their building, and the loser will have to deal with an 8-8 record and a once-promising season that ended in bitter disappointment.

On December 11th, the Giants traveled to Dallas and completed a wild and improbable comeback to steal the NFC East throne from the Cowboys, albeit temporarily. With their backs against the wall and down by 12 with five minutes remaining, Eli Manning brought the Giants back from the dead and kept their playoff hopes alive.

On Sunday night, the Giants and Cowboys will have 60 minutes to battle it out on the field for the NFC East title. So while the rest of the world is making plans for New Year’s Eve, Giants fans are hoping that the real celebration comes around midnight on January 2nd, not midnight on January 1st.

“Okay, that’s fine,” I thought, “I’ll just go back and check the last automatically saved draft.” That sounded like a solid plan, until I checked the last saved revision and found that it, too, was completely blank. So, to make a long story short, I am now attempting to rehash everything I wrote in the last column that I spent almost two hours writing. Maybe I’ll tell a better story this time around because I’m consciously trying to cut straight to the point and eliminate all the fat.

Or maybe, because I’m so mad at WordPress for the events that just occurred, I’ll forget a bunch of the gems I included in my original draft and just resort to bullet points this time around for the sake of time. For example, I could list all the ways in which the Giants defense tried to give away the game (and the season) in the 4th quarter last night:

*Following Sean Lee’s interception of a tipped Eli Manning screen pass (hey Gilbride, how about we rip the page with “screen pass to D.J. Ware” out of the playbook from here on out? Sound good, buddy?), Dez Bryant got behind Corey Webster, the entire cast of Dallas and everybody sitting in the endzone seats at Cowboys Stadium for a 50-yard touchdown catch. It was a break-down in coverage that was “Look away from your TV”-level embarrassing.

That play made it 34-22 Dallas with under six minutes to play, and at that point I was convinced that the Giants’ season was over. The funeral dirge was playing and the Giants’ season was suspended over a freshly dug grave about be lowered into the ground. That was it. And at that moment I was getting ready to throw the towel in on the 2011 NFL season, and I’m sure every Giants fan would have agreed with me. After all, we’ve already seen a handful of remarkable and improbably 4th quarter comebacks this season, but 12 points down with under six minutes left? Let’s just say I wasn’t expecting too much.

*Of course, not only did Eli Manning refuse to throw in the towel, but he then proceeded to twist the towel up really tight and whip the Cowboys defense into submission. Rob Ryan paced the sidelines like a scowling, pregnant Rex Ryan clone as Eli marched the Giants down the field in six plays before finding Ballard in the end zone to cut the lead to 34-29 with 3:14 to go.

With 2:25 to go and the Cowboys facing a 3rd-and-5 from their own 25 yard line, the game came down to one play for the Giants defense. A first down by Dallas would almost guarantee victory and a stop by Big Blue meant that Eli would get the ball back with a chance to complete the comeback. Of course, knowing that the ultimate weakness of the Giants defense is stopping 3rd down plays of between 5 and 10 yards, Jason Garrett chose to go for the jugular and send Miles Austin on a go-route down the near sideline. Austin was working on Aaron Ross in single coverage, and of course Ross got absolutely torched by Austin like you read about. Just flat-out lost. Suddenly, Romo spots a wide-open Miles Austin streaking towards the sideline with nothing but green FieldTurf in front of him. If Romo makes the throw, it’s 41-29 Cowboys a few seconds later and the Giants’ season is as dead as a door nail. This morning, the story would be about how the Giants defense came up flat again and got torched for 41 points and couldn’t come up big when it had to.

But what happens? Of course Romo overthrows Austin by a hair because he’s Romo. The Cowboys are forced to punt with 2:20 and the Giants dodge a bullet the size of Cowboys Stadium. Now, all is forgiven because we know the outcome of the game. But all is not forgotten. That play stuck in my mind all night, and as Mat McBriar trotted out onto the field to punt the ball back to the Giants, Bob Papa summed up the situation pretty perfectly when he asked Carl Banks, “Did the Giants defense just stop the Cowboys, or did the Cowboys just stop themselves?” I’m going to go with the latter.

*So that was instance #2 of the Giants defense trying to give the game away. Let’s fast forward through yet another heroic Eli Manning drive, leading the Giants down the Dallas 1-yard line after passes of 21 and 18 yards to Jake Ballard. Let’s fast forward through the game-winning touchdown run by Brandon Jacobs and the ensuing two-point conversion run by D.J. Ware (yup, same play that they ran against Green Bay last week) and let’s get to the :46 seconds of deja vu that came with the Giants up 37-34.

The Cowboys offense, with no timeouts remaining, was able to effortlessly glide into field goal range, leaving the game in Dan Bailey’s hands with :09 left. Two big passes from Romo to Austin of 22 and 23 yards, respectively, set up what should have been the game-tying field goal. Once again, the Giants defense was primed to let another valiant comeback by Eli Manning slip away because they couldn’t make one stop when they needed to. If Coughlin doesn’t call that time-out and Bailey’s game-tying kick sails through the uprights, it’s an entirely different story today. Instead, the defense gets bailed out yet again.

Only this time, it was one of their own that came through. Jason Pierre-Paul single-handedly (get it, because he blocked the kick with one hand?) saved the game and the Giants’ season, and not only with that blocked kick. His safety in the first quarter gave the Giants 2 points that ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.

*Here’s the bottom line: The Giants won, the Giants are now in first place, every one in Giants Nation is happy today. That is all true. But what’s also true is that the Giants defense failed to show up yet again last night and despite the win and the larger-than-life effort of JPP, there are still a ton of problems that need to be addressed on the defensive side of the football. Last night’s win was a good start, and a step in the right direction. But the Giants are basically in their own version of the playoffs from here on out and they are going to have to handle their business once again at home against Dallas on New Year’s Day. If the defense doesn’t fix the problems that are currently plaguing them, they might not get bailed out again.