Your favorite team might not have been competing in Super Bowl XLVI, but for many it was still an exciting game. The last game of the season, between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, started out with one of the rare ways to put points on the board: a safety. This gave the Giants the 2-0 lead right away.

Throughout the first quarter, the Giants continued to dominate the field, not allowing the Patriots to score. New York entered the second quarter seemingly in control of the game, leading New England 9-0. The Patriots had other plans for the second quarter, however, as they scored 10 points to give them the 10-9 lead at halftime. The third quarter was a bit more exciting in terms of scoring. The Patriots outscored the Giants 7-6, giving them a 17-15 lead as they approached the final 15 minutes of the game. New England held onto their lead, and it looked like they could be our champions, but New York was not finished yet.

“Somebody had to come up with a play,” Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo told ESPN. “Somebody has to make a turnover.”

They failed to do so, and with 2:49 left in the game, the Giants scored their final touchdown. Failing to complete the two-point conversion kept them at a 4-point lead of 21-17.

The game ended with the amount of excitement that everyone wants in the Super Bowl. It came down to the final seconds, when Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady launched a deep pass, hoping for a miracle. The pass was incomplete, and Eli Manning and the Giants became this year’s superbowl champions.

“They’re a good football team and they’re well coached. They obviously played well tonight,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said of the Giants in a post-game interview. “They just made a couple more plays then we did.”