Perfect ending or underdog tale?

Eli Manning and Tom Brady. The upstart quarterback with the famous last name and the three-time champion passer with the famous social life.

Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick. The stiff, rejuvenated former taskmaster who has lived on the chopping block and the stiff, innovative game-planner looking for his fourth championship.

Plaxico Burress and Randy Moss. The lanky, physical veteran who has played hurt for five months and the lanky, polarizing receiver who set an NFL record for touchdown catches this season.

New York and Boston metropolitan areas. Enough said.

While a Super Bowl XLII matchup between Brady’s New England Patriots and Brett Favre’s Green Bay Packers might have drawn better ratings, a Patriots-New York Giants duel Feb. 3 in Glendale, Ariz., presents several intriguing subplots.

Before the Hype Machine gets cranked up Sunday when both teams are scheduled to arrive in the desert, here are five early story lines:

1. Patriots perfection — New England is the first team to win 18 games in a single season. The Patriots’ next task is joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only team to finish the season perfect.

But since thrashing Buffalo 56-10 on Nov. 18, the Patriots’ average margin of victory has been 10.2 points, compared with 25.4 points in the first 10 games. New England rallied against Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Giants and labored against the Jets, Jacksonville and San Diego.

“I think you enter the season and you’re hoping to put together a bunch of great wins and you realize there’s challenges every step of the way,” Brady said. “We had a few letdowns or times where we didn’t play our best, but we overcame them.”

The difference is between New England and other teams, the Patriots figure things out in time to win.

But they may have left an opening for a hot team like the Giants.

2. Unlikely opponent — The Giants were not given much of a chance to reach the Super Bowl. Not after getting pounded by the Washington Redskins in Week 15. Not after the Giants needed a defensive touchdown to ignite a win at Buffalo.

The fifth-seeded Giants are perhaps the most unlikely NFC representative since the 1979 Rams advanced with a 9-7 regular season record. Los Angeles, coached by the memorable Ray Malavasi, lost to Pittsburgh 31-19.

Since the 12-team playoff system was introduced in 1990, Carolina (2003) and the Giants are the only NFC wild card qualifiers and the only two opening weekend playoff teams to win three postseason games.

“This is very satisfying,” defensive end Michael Strahan said. “The best thing would be to win the big one, but this is great. A lot of guys came up to me and told me how much I deserve this, but to be honest, I’m happier for them because they deserve it more.”

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