Are they really? I know zip about american football. 16 straight wins seems like an excellent record to me

Anyone see the game either on telly or live? Here's a bit of a write up at Reuters: Belichick ends perfect season where it began for Pats

Ya, I watched the game and when they were down 28-16 I thought, uhoh this is it but they managed to beat the Giants by 3 points. I have to give the Giants credit for balls in that they came out to play as they had nothing to lose at that point. I think the monicker of 'Greatest team ever will depend on if they win 3 more games, which means another superbowl win.

I watched it. It was a great game because it was close -- the Giants were ahead at one point and even had the chance to win in the last minute.

BUT they will NOT be considered the greatest team in NFL history unless they win the Super Bowl. I guarantee you this -- if they do NOT win the Super Bowl they will still be the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to go undefeated, and the first to go 16-0 (when the Dolphins did it there were only 14 games in the season so they went 14-0), but they will NOT be remembered for anything but that.

To be called the greatest they MUST win the Super Bowl.

And even THEN they may not necessarily be considered that. But DEFINITELY not now.

They certainly are impressive, no doubt about it. But I agree... unless you win the Silver Ball at the end... you haven't truly been the best ever.

Being a Colts fan, I am naturally biased, but did I happen to see a lot of missed penalties that the Pats got away with (i.e. eye poking) that they seem to sneak in for every game. In my opinion, I think the Pats play dirty to intimidate the other teams, and if that is part of their success of a unbeaten season... what an example to set that could end up ruining a wonderful sport.

Somehow during the Pats and Colts game this year, the Pats weren't as sly as they usually are and received over 150 yards in penalties!!! It was the fault of the Colts for not using that to their advantage and losing anyway, but over 150 yards!?! Looked like the refs were able to notice some of the usual tricks that the Pats have been pulling all along.

I will definitely be rooting for the Colts, even though the game against the Pats is going to be in New England, where the playing ability of Peyton Manning seems to be reduced by more than half whenever he plays there. We definitely need to get our boys outside more...

Ya, I saw that game too, You can add two pick offs by the Colts too and they just couldn't capitalize no matter how hard the Pats tried to give you the game.

Check this out:

Saturday night's simulcast Patriots-Giants game pushed past this year's Patriots-Colts thriller to become the most-watched regular-season NFL game since 1995.

At least 34.5 million people tuned in to see the game on its various outlets, according to preliminary estimates released Sunday afternoon by Nielsen Media Research. That tops everything since the Thanksgiving 1995 Chiefs-Cowboys game that averaged 35.7 million viewers. It was ahead of CBS's 33.8 million viewers for the Nov. 4 Patriots-Colts game that kept the Patriots undefeated.

SOURCE