It all started out with getting the tickets on my birthday. It was the best birthday present I had gotten in my life at that point, and I was so happy to be able to go to one of the most important games of the season. My dad leading up to my birthday had been hinting at going to a Giants game, but I didn’t think that he was actually going to get tickets anytime soon. The tickets were for the Giants vs. Eagles football game on December 19, 2010. I was so excited knowing that I would be going to one of the most important games of the Giants season that year.
     

After countless weeks of waiting, it was finally game day. The Giants going into this game had a record of 9 wins and 4 losses, which was a very good record to be close to ending the season with. It was week 15 in the NFL out of 17, and this game was crucial for the division. In the Giant’s division, the NFC East, it has 3 other teams in the division. The other teams were the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles. The only competition left for the division at this point in the NFL season was the Eagles, which is why this game was important for the Giants to win.
     

When I first saw the Giant’s Stadium up close, it was unbelievable. It was much bigger then what I expected, and the crowds of Giants swarming into the stadium was cool to see. As we walked into the stadium, I saw concession stands everywhere selling everything from Giants blankets to hotdogs. We walked around for a little bit so I could see what every part of the stadium looked like. After roaming around for about half an hour we began to look for our seats. When we found our seats, I realized that our seats were very close to the field and it made me even more excited knowing I would be very close to where all the action was happening. As I took my seat, I looked around and saw the scoreboard which was almost directly in front of my seats on the opposite side of the stadium. Suddenly the Giants players began to run out of the tunnel and began to warm up. After watching them warm up, I realized that the stadium was packed and I saw that all around me were Giants fans looking for the same outcome. A win. Everyone knew a win that day was vital to securing the Giants making the playoffs.
     

The game started out with the Giants taking a 7-0 lead with a 35 yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham. I remember watching this play happen and getting so excited. When I looked at the scoreboard, it was shiny and cool to look at. It was a great feeling looking at the scoreboard and being reminded that the Giants had a lead on their division rival. No one scored for the rest of the first quarter.
     

The second quarter started out with a 34 yard field goal from the Eagles to make the score 7-3 with the Giants still on top. This made me kind of nervous because although the Giants still held the lead, if the Eagles scored a touchdown they would take the lead. A few minutes after this field goal, Eli Manning threw an amazing pass to Mario Manningham again to extend their lead even more. Glancing over at the scoreboard, it seemed to become shinier and shinier as the lead began to grow even more. Following the touchdown was a 25 yard field goal by Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, making the lead 17-3. At this point in the game, Giants fans were going crazy with every play that passed. To make this quarter even better, Eli Manning threw another touchdown, but this time to Hakeem Nicks. While all the Giants fans were getting even more riled up, I began to see a bunch of Eagles fans leave the stadium. Although it wasn’t even halftime, many of the Eagles fanbase had given up on their team. To me the scoreboard showed that the Giants were capable of playing on a high enough level to win the Super Bowl, although they still had a few more games to go before the playoffs started.
     

Going into the second half, the Giants offense seemed to look like it was slowing down. They started playing a little sloppy and started to look like they weren’t putting in that much of an effort because of the lead they held. By the end of the third quarter, the Giants didn’t score at all but the Eagles quarterback Michael Vick threw an 8 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin to keep the Eagles in the game heading into the fourth quarter. This touchdown started to make me feel scared that the Eagles were still in the game, and it still seemed like the Giants were still putting in no effort although this touchdown could change the outcome of the game.
     

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Eli Manning threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game to give the Giants a lead of 31-10. At this point I 100% believed that this game was over, and I just wanted to stay to watch the final seconds of the clock expire. Suddenly, the Eagles scored and put themselves back in the game. The score was 31-17 with just a couple of minutes left in the game. At this point the scoreboard didn’t look as bright as it did before, and I started to become very anxious. It was still very unlikely for the Giants to lose, but could the Eagles really pull off this comeback? I doubted it, and just hoped the Giants would kill time at this point. Just a few minutes later, the Eagles scored again making the score 31-24 with the Giants still winning. The scoreboard began to lose it’s glowing appearance and began to look gloomy. Just a few minutes after that the Eagles scored again, making the score 31-31. I looked at the scoreboard and it became unbearable to look at. How did the Giants just manage to choke a lead so horrible with a potential playoff tiebreaker on the line? On the Giants last drive of the game, they had 2 incomplete passes and then Eli got sacked on third down. With 14 seconds left in the game, the Giants punted the ball off to the Eagles. Desean Jackson at first dropped the punt, but then ran it back to the Giants end zone with the clock expiring. The Eagles had pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, and it just so happened to be for a playoff tiebreaker and my first NFL game. I hoped a flag would be thrown on the play, but there was none, and the scoreboard read 38-31 Eagles. I began to cry, and as I looked at the scoreboard, it had lost its shiny appearance, and now was just completely black. This game would go on to cost the Giants their spot in the playoffs, because this game was used as a tiebreaker for the Eagles because both teams finished the season with the same record.