Reality vs. delusions

Anybody who knows me know I hate to give the New England Patriots credit for anything but the fact of the matter is that the Denver Broncos were out of their league from the very beginning. The fact that they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers last week to make it this far was a sports miracle for sure, but it looks like maybe God is a Patriots fan after all. I guess the Broncos were kind of like the little engine that could...up to a point. Even the little engine that could would break down faced against Stonewall Brady and the brickwall that is the Patriots. The Broncos have the potential. Tim Tebow is young and unseasoned. But the Patriots have experience. And a whole slew of good players who know their way around a playoff game. The Broncos-Patriots game was the one I was most looking forward to but it was over by halftime - New Orleans-49ers was where it was at. I'm no New Orleans fan either - I was totally rooting for Peyton Manning and the Colts the year those two teams met in the Super Bowl but the Saints were looking like a real contender by the end of the year. The truth is, though, I don't know the 49ers - I don't know a single player or a single thing about them, so for all I know, they were the better team all along, but I wanted them to win anyway. I hate jumping on bandwagons and I know a lot of people who jumped on the Saints' bandwagon after their Super Bowl win. But the fourth quarter of that game was the kind of quarter you hope to have throughout an entire game in the playoffs - the kind of back and forth nailbiter with multiple lead-changes that keeps the viewer on the edge of her seat through the whole thing. Granted, if the team you're rooting for loses this kind of match-up, then it sucks, but if the team you're rooting for actually pulls off the win, then this is the kind of game you can go back to and watch over and over again all the time. (Case in point, I have the New York Giants' entire 2007 postseason on DVD). So now I don't know what to expect from the game I'm most invested in, tomorrow's New York Giants - Green Bay Packers match up. The Patriots were expected to win and they did, but the Saints were expected to win and they didn't. I'm hoping I'm not delusional in thinking the Giants might actually have a chance against the Packers. I know the Packers are favored to win and as someone who has been rooting for Aaron Rodgers all year whenever he wasn't playing a New York team, I'm finding it hard to root against him tomorrow but I feel like my expectations that the Giants can at least give the Packers a run for their money, if not take advantage of any Packers mistakes or just WANT IT MORe, is grounded at least a little bit in reality, but I guess in less than 17 hours, we'll find out...