… was just an unbelievable game: the Giants and the Packers played football at an amazingly high level last night, through temperatures that dropped to -4 degrees, and gusts that made it feel twenty degrees colder. The rivetting, see-saw battle finally ended in overtime, when a journeyman placekicker named Lawrence Tynes booted the Giants into the Super Bowl with a 47-yard field goal — only after missing a chip-shot moments earlier that would have won the game on the last play of regulation time. But what was so remarkable was the ability of the players to execute plays throughout the night as if it were the end of summer, and the electricity of the crowd to the very end, despite hours in conditions to which the word frigid does not do justice. A great season for the Packers, and a tremendous accomplishment for the Giants, who had to beat three good teams on the road to advance.

Now, after all that, comes the worst week of the year. Why do they have to take two weeks off before the Super Bowl?