Everyone predicted a Patriots-Giants Super Bowl, right? But what else should we have expected in a season in which the only thing we could count on each week was a Patriots victory?

As the AFC Championship Game wore on and the Chargers were (in the words of Teddy KGB in Rounders), “hanging around, hanging around,” it became painfully obvious that this would not be one of those Patriots blowouts from earlier in the season that we had grown to love. But just as they had done 17 times before, the 2007 Patriots won the game. This time the script was decidedly different. It included a red zone interception by Tom Brady (his first since the Broncos disaster from two years ago), a power running game by Laurence Maroney and the offensive line, and solid red zone defense.

It all added up to 18-0 and a trip to the Super Bowl. Just as expected. But not quite how we expected.

In the NFC Championship Game, the Giants and Packers waged a battle of last man standing (in the Arctic). On a brutally cold Wisconsin night, each team passed the ball far more than predicted—and with better results than one would expect. But perhaps the Packers should have found some way to run the ball more than 13 times (the Giants had 39 running plays). Maybe then the time of possession battle wouldn’t have been so pronounced (the Giants had the ball for 40 minutes compared to the Packers’ 22). And maybe they wouldn’t have been relying on Brett Favre to remain the new Brett Favre—instead of the one from years past who was the mad gunslinger. His final interception was reminiscent of many of his old head-scratching throws.

Give the Giants credit. They did what they needed to do to win. It was their 10th straight road win and their sixth win in their last eight games. Now they head to the Super Bowl to face the Patriots in a game dripping with irony: The two teams played one of the most entertaining, highly-rated “meaningless” games in NFL history in Week 17. Now they’ll play again for the NFL championship.

And who knows—perhaps that Week 17 game is one of the reasons the Giants are going to the Super Bowl. Every team that rested their starters down the stretch was bounced from the playoffs this year. But the Giants and Patriots—with nothing to play for other than history—played until the final gun of their final game. Maybe the Giants played their way in, starting with the toe-to-toe match-up with the undefeated Patriots.

History will again be on the line when Super Bowl XLII rolls around. The Patriots will be trying to cap off the first 19-0 season in NFL history, while the Giants will be trying to defeat the only 18-0 team in NFL history.

In this unpredictably predictable season, would it shock anyone if the Giants knocked off the Patriots? OK, that would be a shock. Consider this: The Patriots won 6 more games than the Giants in the regular season. It’s the most lopsided match-up in terms of wins in Super Bowl history. The next widest gap between Super Bowl entrants in the last 40 years was 3 wins, which has happened six times. Five of those games were won by the team with more wins—and one of them was the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history, San Francisco’s 55-10 drubbing of Denver in Super Bowl XXIV.

The lone upset when a 3-game win disparity was involved? The 2001 New England Patriots, who knocked off the Greatest Show on Turf Rams and started the current dynasty.

History is on the Patriots’ side. And if they need a reminder of what can happen in the biggest game of the year, they need only break out their own game film from six years ago.