I got a late phone call from Roger Goodell last night. He was trying to commandeer this column to spew some propaganda about how the NFL Network could save the world if only those cable meanies would just let it. I reminded the commissioner he had better things to do, like review Vince Wilfork’s eye-finger coordination. No thanks necessary.

I had other things on my mind anyway. The 2007 New England Patriots were going for history. The problem was, the Giants decided to play Saturday night, and the Boss, Kevin Boss, was singing two-part harmony in the Jersey swamps with E-Street Eli Manning as the clock wound down on the first half.

It got worse to start the second half, and many a Patriots fan was wishing he’d never been given a chance to set eyes upon the NFL Network.

The Giants brought heat on Tom Brady. For the better part of three quarters, the Patriots brought no heat on Eli Manning. During that time, it seemed that would be the difference between making history and trying to pick up the pieces for the next two weeks.

But some crucial adjustments by Bill Belichick and Co. to increase the pressure brought Manning back to reality and allowed the offense, specifically Tom Brady and Randy Moss, to bring us back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

This is the same offense that settled for three field goals in the first half and appeared to be on pace to break as many records for squanders as touchdown passes. But if you’ve watched this offense all year, you knew the points were going to come eventually. It was just a matter of the defense unsettling Eli Manning.

Unsettling was the theme of the first half. With the early bomb to Plaxico Burress, Giants coach Tom Coughlin showed how much thought to putting in a token effort before resting his starters. But it took a roller-coaster sequence at the end of the first/beginning of the second quarter for things to truly become unsettiling. It started with Moss sprawled on the Meadowlands carpet in the first “Uh-oh” injury moment of the season, then coming back to catch the go-ahead touchdown, then getting flagged for excessive celebration, followed by the Ken Walter of kickoffs from Stephen Gostkowski. The Indy/Philly/Baltimore flashbacks were starting.

If the celebration flag and Domenik Hixon’s TD return weren’t glaring signals that the Patriots were making mistakes foreign to New England fans since the Pete Carroll era, giving up a touchdown on the final drive of the first half drove the point home. The brick wall in the red zone that had made New England’s bend-but-don’t break defense of the second half of the season showed cracks against the pass.

But as Manning and the New York offense retreated into its shell in the second half, Tom Brady, who should have the words “unanimous” and “MVP” attached to his name within a few weeks, reminded everyone why New England, even if it isn’t hitting on all cylinders, will never be out of a game in the postseason.

The Patriots have two weeks to regroup and home field throughout the playoffs. For the last month, they struggled against some mediocre teams that played perhaps their best football of the season when they encountered the Flying Elvii. Crediy the Giants with giving everything they had, even if it cost them their starting center for next week’s game in Tampa Bay.

The terrain is only going to get tougher from here. Every single AFC team in what Bill Parcells calls the tournament is better than Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. Those teams won’t just be trying to be the team to knock off the Patriots, they will be playing for their survival.

If one of them knocks the Patriots off, 16-0 will mean virtually nothing. But if 16-0 means anything to the 2007 New England Patriots right now, it means that they know a lot about what it means to survive.