18 - 1

So close ... so close. But, as they say, "close" only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.

Patriots were totally outplayed on both sides of the ball. Giants kept blitzing and blitzing and blitzing and Patriots QB Tom Brady and the offense just couldn't get a rhythm going and the line couldn't protect Brady.

The defense was great except for when they had to be on the Giants' last drive of the game.

"Disappointing" doesn't even begin to cover it. Just really sucks that it's not going to be worth reading the Sports pages tomorrow, checking out espn.com ... no DVD commemorating an otherwise amazing season for the Patriots.

And I feel badly for Junior Seau and Randy Moss. These guys have been in the league for a long time and deserve a Super Bowl ring.

There's always next year ...

Oh, one other thing ... read an interesting stat earlier today ... in the 42-year history of the Super Bowl, the NFL's leading passer has never won the Lombardi. This year's leader? Tom Brady.