INDIANAPOLIS — It finally caught up to them, and with the most at stake.

All season, things had broken their way. Their opponents were the team that made the mistakes. They'd thrived on intelligence and intensity and found a way to stay afloat until the enemy found a way to beat itself.

But in Super Bowl XLVI, the Patriots' worst enemy was themselves.

Giving away nine points with untimely penalties in the opening period, then costing themselves with a lack of discipline and luck after taking a lead just before Madonna took the halftime stage, the Patriots missed a second opportunity to win a fourth Super Bowl in 11 seasons by losing to the Giants, again, this time 21-17.

History will remember that Eli Manning led a 94-yard drive in the final four minutes, and that Ahmad Bradshaw's rushing touchdown with 57 seconds to play made New York the world's champion for the second time in four years. But it was a string of uncharacteristic — and now eternally unforgivable — errors that put the Patriots in position for that painful outcome.

“We made more mistakes,” said New England receiver Deion Branch, “and regardless of the plays we made, there were so many missed opportunities that we didn't capitalize on, that they gave us.”

After the Giants only got bolder and more brash in their trash talk as the week went on — defensive lineman Chris Canty went so far as to Tweet his prediction of a New York win on Sunday morning, complete with a score — it couldn't have started much worse for the club lost to the same foe in a similarly tight game four years ago.

Tom Brady was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, resulting in a safety that gave New York two points on New England's first offensive play. The Patriots then saw their fumble recovery overturned because they had too many men on the field. And they committed more penalties in the first 26 minutes Sunday than they did in the first 120 minutes of their postseason.

His team having gifted the Giants a 9-0 lead, it appeared at that point Brady had furnished an answer. First he led a drive that netted a Stephen Gostkowski field goal. Then he put together a 22-play stretch that, had he won, would've surely been remembered the day he is enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Hitting on 13 straight passes, he was precise with his throws and perfect on calls at the line, surgically leading the Patriots through two consecutive scoring drives. The first accumulated 108 yards of offense (after a pair of penalties), and ended with a four-yard strike to Danny Woodhead. The second was capped by a 12-yard touchdown to Aaron Hernandez, which made Brady 13-for-13 on the two series, and put his Patriots ahead, 17-9, in the third quarter.

But on this day, two stellar series wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to permanently overcome the dreadful start. It wasn't enough to create separation from a resilient Giants team that took six straight must-win games en route to its rings. And it wasn't enough to overcome the mistakes and missed chances still to come.

Some of it was bounces. Including the one canceled by the Patriots' own penalty, the Giants fumbled three times and didn't once lose the ball. Those are breaks the Pats got in the regular season — and didn't on Sunday.

The same goes for some of the mistakes that were missing along the way to 13-3, and an AFC title, but reared their most ugly head in the Super Bowl. Facing first down near midfield, with the game still in his command, Brady threw a bad interception when needlessly trying to hit Gronkowski downfield on a broken play. It was part of a second half during which he went 7-for-17.

Rob Ninkovich was called for going offside on third-and-7 early in the fourth quarter, undoing an incompletion, and allowing New York to continue a drive.

And on the Patriots final full possession, Wes Welker dropped a catchable ball — “It comes to the biggest moment of my life and don't come up with it” — that would've given New England a key first down in Giants' territory. Then, on the next play, the Pats failed to convert because Brady's throw to Branch was just a little bit behind the receiver.

“From the first quarter to the fourth quarter, we had too many errors and made too many mistakes,” Hernandez said. “When you make mistakes early on, they catch up to you later in the game.”

They did, setting the stage for Manning, and Bradshaw, and to their credit, they capitalized. Mario Manningham did a brilliant job to get his feet in bounds on a 38-yard throw that got New York off its own goal line, and from there the execution remained excellent. They took advantage of what, coming in, was their perceived edge in talent. And they earned their confetti bath, while the Patriots were splashed with a cold, harsh reality that some believed was months in the making.

Four years ago, the Giants won a game to prove those Pats weren't perfect. Sunday night they won a game that proved when these Pats weren't perfect, they were certainly beatable.

Dave D'Onofrio covers the Patriots for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.

Once again, Giants stun the Patriots