5:38 PM. Let the live blog begin! We're back at Bostonist Auxiliary HQ in Central Mass, where we've been for 15 out of the previous 18 games this season (2 of the 3 we missed were the way-too-close Baltimore and Jets II games, so no way we're taking any chances). We're joined for a little while by a 2 1/2 year old who has never seen a Patriot Super Bowl win in his entire life. Win this one for the kids, guys.

5:40. The Super Bowl is brought to you by Fox, which means another potential great moment in our lives will be accompanied by Joe Buck. Awesome. Just awesome. He'll start showing up at weddings and in delivery rooms next.

5:42. Let's go on record with a prediction. 40-21. In a good way.

5:46. We're told "no Super Bowl is complete without Frank Caliendo". Somehow the Republic survived without Frank for years and years. But we're laughing at the John Madden impression despite ourselves. Frank-as-John predicts the Giants. O RLY.

5:53. The actual Fox talking heads are making their picks, and all three guys are going with the Pats. Howie Long even dons a Sox hat, because he can see which way the wind is blowing. The host (who is not James Brown) won't make a pick but tells football fans across America to go vote.

5:57. Are they really having a bunch of football types read off the Declaration of Independence? This is actually so cool I don't even want to make a joke about Peyton Manning being involved. Plus, this has to bode well for the Patriots.

(More after the jump!)

6:03. If you missed it, UniWatch on ESPN already called out the Giants for wearing no blue on their road jerseys.

6:05. Joe Buck: "It's great news for Giants fans to hear that their team is relaxed", after an interview with Michael Strahan. Yeah, because in most pregame interviews, players tend to admit that they're wetting themselves with fear and anxiety.

6:10. Promotional video for the Giants and their resiliency and their amazing 10-game road winning streak. Should we point out that the Patriots have an 8-game road winning streak, and may well have more except that they won home-field advantage? No, that's too obvious? OK.

6:12. I'd love to see a Peyton-cam right now as Eli takes the field.

6:13. Promotional video for the Patriots focuses on "teamwork". I'd also love to see a Mercury Morris-cam right now.

6:17. Dear Fox and NFL. If you say the game will start at 6, and it really starts at like 6:13, nobody will really care. But if you say the game will start at 6:17, you're being pretty exact, and we'd like to hold you to that. Now someone named "Jordin Sparks" is about to sing the National Anthem. Over-under: 1 minute, 54 seconds.

6:21. 1:52. I may not know much, but I know my long National Anthems.

6:25. Coin toss time! But first, we have to give an award to Miami's Jason Taylor (the closest a Dolphin's been to a Super Bowl in a long time), and some old 49ers to flip the coin in honor of Bill Walsh. They'd have brought out the '72 Dolphins, but they'd probably assassinate the Patriot captains, and that would be bad news.

6:27. The Giants win the toss, and the Phoenix crowd sounds overwhelmingly pro-Giants. No surprise, since everyone hates the Patriots. But this means curtains for that Giant Road Warrior mentality.

6:28. Chris Myers, can you let Bruschi go PLAY FOOTBALL instead of grabbing his arm and making him answer some pointless question? Kthxbye

6:32. Joe Buck reminds us that the Patriots linebackers are old. When last we heard Joe in a big game, he was telling us that Mike Lowell might not come back to the Red Sox after the World Series. So we.....wait what?? Bill's in a red sweatshirt? What's up with that?

6:36. Joe: "Two players down for the Patriots. We'll take a break." One of them was Randall Gay, the other one, WE DON'T KNOW because America loves its Super Bowl commercials. So we'll wait and see if it's someone who might affect the game.

6:39. The other one was Rodney Harrison, but the important thing is that Joe got to tell us how Phoenix is buzzing about some golf tournament. When I drop dead of high blood pressure at 42, mention Joe Buck on my tombstone.

6:40. Three third downs, three big gains for the Giants. Last game, they gave up huge yards to San Diego then shut them down inside the 20. Hope they have similar plans in mind for this drive. Nice shot of a poker-faced Peyton in the club seats.

6:43. Nice play by Hobbs to keep Plaxico from grabbing a touchdown. I'm not crazy about 8+ minute New York drives, though.

6:45. Fox's clock is broken. And the red zone defense once again holds the other guys to 3 points. Brady time.

6:49. Excellent return by Maroney. What we'd love to see, frankly, is for Brady to answer NY's 10-minute 3-point drive with a 75-second 7-point drive. The commercials so far suck, by the way.

6:53. Brady throws one into the ground. Joe Buck tells us we can rewatch all the Super Bowl commercials on Myspace. This is officially the worst minute of the week.

6:56. Kevin Faulk, as always, is three inches away from breaking away for a touchdown. First down, though, and Brady looks a little more comfortable now. Even though he just fired one over Watson's head. No worry. No problem.

6:57. And now he puts one behind Faulk for an incompletion. Everything is FINE. Don't worry.

7:00. Zero in the first quarter for the Patriots. Again...no panic.

7:02. And Maroney for six. 7>3 is still a pretty good strategy, and means eventually Eli will have to take a chance.

7:06. OK, the giant pigeon commercial was OK. The Tide talking stain, not good. The Danica Patrick "too hot for Fox" one, a little confusing. And who knew Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy were a couple? Someone call 1998, where they might give a damn.

7:09. Looked like a catch-and-fumble by Plaxico from here. And a miracle catch by Toomer. The Manning Brothers, heaving the ball downfield and hoping for the best since 1997.

7:11. Troy Aikman: "The QB has to know where the play clock is." I may be wrong, but I think there's a giant one right in front of them. Among the things we love about Brady; he ALWAYS know where the play clock is.

7:13. Awesome recovery by Hobbs, on a drive that had Trouble written all over it. And, OK, this Clydesdale commercial is pretty good. Things are picking up, or maybe it's just the mood after a Pats score/takeaway.

7:20. That last round of commercials just confused me, as did the 3 straight Maroney runs. Joe Buck: "We may not be the best announcers out there". Hmmm.

7:23. The Giants get away with one on the fumble call, but at least Eli's now running around like a frightened prairie dog. And the Giants have to punt. We're calm.

7:27. Hey, Tom? Everything OK? Really?

7:30. Carlos Mencia + crappy beer = not inspiring me to drink. Tom Brady's performance, on the other hand...

7:37. Nice job stepping up by the defense. Who thought that, as we neared halftime, it would be the offense we're worried about?

7:41. Do these commercials make sense to anyone? I seriously feel like I just arrived in this country and there's a whole national zeitgeist that I don't understand in order to make sense of the ads. I'm seriously not inspired to spend money on anything.

7:47. Really? Second fewest 1st-half yards, better only than Tony Eason's team? Wow. I didn't think they looked that bad. Except they do.

7:54. The first half is mercifully over. If there were any justice and rationality in the world, the Giants would be up about 24-7 right now. Thank goodness we live in an imperfect world.

7:58. Keys to the second half. Well, how about giving Brady some protection? And how about going back to those midfield Welker/Watson passes that carved up the Jaguars? And the defense...well, the defense has been fine. I think we need a long TD drive to start the second half. Really going out on a limb there, I know.

8:04. Now, I'll be honest. I love Tom Petty, and have for years. But I'd like him just as much if they didn't have hundreds of goofballs herded in front of the stage to jump around like morons. I guess after cramming dozens of American Idol commercials, it wouldn't look authentic if they didn't have idiots mugging for the camera when a real performer comes along.

8:09. We'd be remiss if we didn't point out that Gothamist is live-blogging the game too. Tom really should have gone with "Mary Jane's Last Dance" here, but the goofballs need an excuse to wave glowsticks and pretend they know the words to "Free Fallin'".

8:13. Three from Full Moon Fever? Really? Whither "Refugee"?

8:21. We miss Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, and Jim's creepy turn to the camera. We also miss the Patriots' efficient and fearsome offense.

8:25. Joe Buck just told us that Coach Bill ripped into the team after a lackluster practice on Wednesday. Maybe if our local media had sent 745 thousand and one reporters to Phoenix this week, one of them would have noted that story somewhere along the line.

8:27. 10-yard-ish pass to Welker up the middle. This isn't that complicated a game, when you get right down to it.

8:34. The Shaq-horse racing commercial was OK, but makes us remember to make sure everybody's seen this Onion story.

8:37. Why we love Bill: It took sharp eyes to notice that a Giant didn't get off the field quick enough, and it took guts to get the ref to take a look at it. And gave the offense a good long rest, too. Thanks, Bill.

8:40. Why we love Kevin Faulk: Isn't it obvious?!?

8:43. Going for it on fourth down, Brady gets time but can't find an open receiver. It was a tough call; Gostkowski doesn't inspire the same confidence (on what would have been a 45ish-yard attempts) that Vinatieri did. But we're not about to start second-guessing Coach Bill now. It wouldn't have been the strangest play of the year if they'd converted.

8:46. And Kevin Faulk's limping. Great. Just great.

8:50. Nice...NICE....series by the secondary. A Samuel deflection, and then keeping Plaxico from catching it on third down. A lot of people who've spent time with question marks over their heads have played a lot better than we'd hoped today.

8:56. Wes Welker, man. Awesome. That was as scared as we've been all season.

8:57. We just learned that the Giants have brought in hundreds of bananas to keep their defense from dehydrating. Followed by a closeup of said bananas.

8:59. Troy Aikman just brought up the very good point of, how long can the NY defense keep this intensity up? Joe Buck, showing the back-and-forth that makes a network's A-team really hum, reminds us the Pro Bowl is next Sunday.

9:04. We'd like to order the "Eli panics and throws an interception down the sideline", please. And we'll tip well if it happens early in the drive.

9:07. Wow, did they screw that order up, sending us the "45-yarder down the middle" instead. Last time we call that place.

9:09. Coach Bill looks calm, which is more than we can say. Also looking calm is Eli Manning, who has time to make a sandwich before the pass with the lack of pressure NE's putting on him.

9:11. @#$%^&

9:17. Randy Moss...good to see you, man.

9:19. It kind of looks like Tom Brady's throwing with one eye closed. It also looks like the offensive line is making more mistakes today than they've made all year. Grab your flasks and rosary beads...we're hitting some serious turbulence.

9:24. Can we sack Eli? Please?

9:25. Rodney Harrison may have just saved our season.

9:29. Brady still looks calm. Coach Bill still looks calm. I'm going to look like the Cryptkeeper tomorrow. What's up with this?

9:33. If the Pats come back and win this, there's no excuse for Wes Welker not being the MVP. There, we said it.

9:34. Or Kevin Faulk. We're not picky.

9:35. This excitable little NY defensive coach has gotten more air time than Tom Coughlin has gotten today. And we haven't seen a Patriot assistant coach on camera all game.

9:40. Brady. Moss. No sweat.

9:43. Some Patriot no one's EVER heard of just creamed the kickoff receiver. Now, Eli. Now's the time for the killer INT. We'll call Asante Samuel on the sideline.

9:45. No interception yet, but Eli has the Manning Face on in a big way. He suddenly doesn't look like a very confident quarterback. 3rd and 10, big play coming up.

9:49. Nice play by Adalius Thomas to bring down Eli, but it reminds us that we haven't heard his name, or Seymour or Warren, all day.

9:51. How did you not bring Eli down on that play? What happened?

9:55. The Pats have had about 10 "almost"s on this drive. Almost intercepted, almost sacks, almost this, almost that.

9:58. And that was one too many, as Eli finds Burress WIDE open for the go-ahead score. Uh. Oh.

10:04. Well, we thought the Giants deserved some good karma for playing their best in Week 17. Be careful what you wish for, huh? They made the big plays, and the Pats didn't. Congratulations, Giants. Congratulations, America, you got your wish. And congratulations, Mercury Morris, who has a reason to go on living after all. As for us....go Celtics.