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It's no solace to the New England Patriots, but the New York Giants should not have as much time as they did on their game-winning drive.
Mike Pereira, the league's vice president of officiating, confirmed Tuesday that the timer failed to start the clock on a completed pass in the middle of the fourth quarter. Pereira estimated the error might have added eight seconds to the game -- not enough to keep the Giants from scoring but enough to make New England grumble.
"It should've been run at 8:24," said Pereira, in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, "and we started it after the next play. So we got most of it back. We rewound the 25-second clock to make up for some of the lost time."
Rewind the videotape to 8:24, and you find the Giants' Eli Manning taking the snap, taking several steps back and launching a pass over the middle to Amani Toomer. The wide receiver makes a diving 8-yard catch at the New York 38, 1 yard short of a first down, and the Giants are forced to punt.
But before the snap, coach Tom Coughlin can be seen hollering at officials from the sideline -- urging them to start the clock.
They did. Coughlin was right.
Now look what happens: When Jeff Feagles punts, it is with 8:02 remaining. From snap to snap, 22 seconds elapse. When the Giants had a pass completion on their previous series, they didn't run their next play until 40 seconds had elapsed.
That would suggest that as many as 18 more seconds should have been run off the clock, and while that still wouldn't have prevented the Giants from scoring at the end of the game, it might have affected how they ran their game-winning series.
Asked for an explanation of the clock failure, Pereira said the timer "just didn't hit the button" to start the clock, which is not unique. But it's rare in a game of this magnitude.
"I was aware of it," Pereira said.