they almost beat NE in week 17 tho Yeah, when the Pats had everything sewn up except the perfect record. Means little, if anything. They both played their starters the whole game. So? So? The Patriots players publicly said that they considered it a special game and one of the most important of their lives. The Giants got their best shot in week 17, they didn't hold anything back. I'm sure they'll tell the media whatever they want to hear. They're not going to say what the reality is: if they lose the game, it means absolutely nothing in terms of the actual goal, which is winning the Super Bowl. First off, did you happen to be able to get a chance to see that game? Teams that have nothing to play for often don't play at the huge intensity level that was present in the Patriots-Giants game. And it's not in the Patriots public interest to say that they were interested in going for 16-0. If they wanted to be "correct", they should have said the outcome of the game didn't mean anything to them. The fact that they said the incorrect thing made the chance that they were being completely honest much greater. This Patriots team wanted to go 19-0 for a long time now. They've won Super Bowls, they wanted perfection, and they wanted all the records. LOL, yeah telling their legions of fans that the perfect record isn't the ultimate goal and therefore that game wasn't paramount would have gone over real well. Players aren't stupid. They know what the real goal is. You can try to psyche yourself up for the "perfect record" all you want, but these games now are *elimination* games -- they affect careers, they affect salary levels -- how far you go now can directly affect your very lifestyle. There's no way you can say there's no difference. Watch and see in 2 weeks how much of a difference it makes.