Don't believe the hype around Giants/Pats

By Max J. Dickstein, amNewYork Sports Editor | mdickstein@am-ny.com

December 21, 2007

There are obvious problems with the Patriots' effort to complete the NFL's first perfect 16-0 regular season against the Giants on Saturday

Most prominently, a fully involved push for an unbeaten season defies the NFL-specific logic of playoff preparation.

New England's first 15 victories ensured that the team has a home-field express to the Super Bowl, with a divisional playoff game and potential AFC Championship game to follow in Foxborough, Mass.

For a 15-0 regular-season team (the Pats are the first), the 16th contest should be either a meaningless loss or a vanity victory, at least it ought to be in the postseason scheme of things.

At 10-5, the Giants, the Patriots' opponent, are similarly bound to an outcome that will have no direct playoff significance.

But we define "significance" differently when titanic records are in line for a resounding shatter, setting aside adages about titles and immortality.

Take another team of Giants (the San Francisco ones), moribund competitors who finished 19 games out of first place in the National League West this year. Never mind that: an individual, Barry Bonds, smashed (and gashed) baseball's all-time home run record, compensating for his team's failings.

Without a whiff of the playoffs, the Patriots have already captivated us, parlaying blowouts, statement wins and six beatings of weak AFC East divisional opponents (the Jets and Dolphins, in particular) into this weekend's meaninglessly meaningful conflict with the Giants and the NFL's only other undefeated regular-season finisher, the champion Miami Dolphins of 1972 (a 14-0 group whose perfect mark the Pats could only equal, at least technically).

Saturday's game is sure to be intense in spite of its lack of Super Bowl significance. When the Patriots win by 7, fickle Giants fans will suffer the indignity of becoming an unnecessary casualty of the Patriots and their irascible, cutoff-sweatshirt-wearing coach, Bill Belichick.

Max J. Dickstein is amNewYork's sports editor.