They weren't so much champions as much as they were survivors. The New England Patriots and the New York Giants are headed to the Super Bowl for the renewal of their long running feud known in NFL circles as the, "Border War."

New England vs. Baltimore

It was really a lost opportunity for the Ravens, maybe their last opportunity to be this close to the Super Bowl. An aging defense left it all out on the field. Quarterback Joe Flacco, under a nationwide media siege for his erratic play, put on a dazzling display.

But the Ravens were done in when Billy Cundiff missed what appeared to be an easy 36 yard game winning field goal, with seconds left. The snap was low and inside, but still placed firmly for the kick. He pulled it left, leaving Baltimore to a devastating trip home. Flacco was superb in the face of a strong rush, throwing for 306 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

You had to feel for the Ravens defense, which limited superstar Tom Brady to 239 yards passing. Brady's fourth quarter QB sneak over the top of the pile gave the Patriots the (23-20) victory.

It was an odd sight to see Brady flustered and frustrated. He threw two interceptions, and had two other picks negated when the Ravens were flagged with penalties away from the ball. Legendary Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, safety Ed Reed and DB Bernard Pollard made plays throughout the day.

You seldom heard the names of Rob Gronkowski or Aaron Hernandez, the double trouble New England tight ends. The Patriots gave up nearly 400 yards. The Ravens went to the air deep all day long. Baltimore did everything right except winning the game.

New York vs. San Francisco

It was a war of attrition, as the Giants went to overtime to put away San Francisco. Eli Manning continued his brilliant growth as a quarterback, leading his team to an emotion-packed victory.

San Francisco's Kyle Williams made mistakes on two punts that resulted in a fourth quarter touchdown, and the game winning field goal in overtime. He let a bouncing punt hit his knee, then was stripped of the ball on a punt return in overtime. It was the difference in the game. In between the 49ers special teams mistakes, Manning and 49ers quarterback Alex Smith took turns playing survivor.

They both got pounded by a rugged pass rush. Manning was (32-58) for a hard earned 316 yards and two touchdowns. In driving the Giants to victory, he pushed his career postseason record to an impressive (7-1) and won his 4th preseason game in a row on the road. He survived 6 sacks, was knocked down 6 other times and took 19 hits in the pocket. Yet he kept making plays.

Smith, in the resurrection season of his career, came to an end in a flurry of incompletions, scrambles from the pocket, and ugly three and out drives. It wasn’t pretty for him. He was just (12 of 26) and flushed from the pocket all night long. He completed just one pass to a wide receiver, though he did throw two TD bombs to tight end Vernon Davis. But there weren’t enough big plays and way too much pressure placed on the Niners defense.

The Giants defense got stronger as the wet night got longer. San Francisco was an atrocious (0-13) on third downs. The final stat sheet showed the Giants with a whopping 90-57 advantage. New York is going to the Super Bowl on a roll, having beaten the Cowboys twice, the Jets, Atlanta, Green Bay and now San Francisco, when their backs were to the wall.

The Niners go home with the comfort of knowing they ended a nine year drought of failure, in getting to the NFL title game and then to overtime, before losing.

The Super Bowl is in two weeks. There is so much bad history between these two teams. It has been an interesting decade of bad blood between the franchises. Two great coaches will square off against each other.

Belichick and his brilliance vs. Tom Coughlin and his old school tactics. It will be the dynamics of Brady vs. the enormous growth of Manning in a battle of star quarterbacks. It will be two fierce defensive units.

It may not be Drew Brees or Aaron Rogers, (surely not Philip Rivers) but these two teams surely earned this ticket the hard way.

Lee 'Hacksaw' Hamilton talks sports weekday mornings at 10am on XX-1090-Sportsradio