FOXBORO - Here's a shocker for you to chew on the first day of 2008:

Contrary to popular belief, the hard part is over for your New England Patriots. That's right, the pressure is off.

Sounds crazy doesn't it with potentially three games, including one against defending Super Bowl champions, the Indianapolis Colts, remaining? But it's true.

The Patriots can get back to doing what they did for nearly three months, which is destruct and destroy.

We have come to realize the Patriots were tired, mentally and emotionally. A team had never won 16 games in a regular season before for a reason - the pressure is unbearable.

In fact, the evidence state it is much easier winning a Super Bowl, like 41 teams have done since the birth of the Super Bowl era in 1966, than it is every regular-season game, like only one team had done before (Miami in 1972).

Four teams have lost only one game during the regular season, with three (Oakland in '76; 49ers in '84; Bears in '85) of those winning Super Bowls in blowouts.

Every team the Patriots faced since Thanksgiving had an axe to grind against the local team. Because the Patriots made so many teams look like fodder in September, October and early November, the expectations each weekend grew exponentially.

The beefy 20-plus point spreads didn't help matters. It seemed every offended foe took it personally and played their best against the Patriots.

The playoffs are a different animal, an animal the Patriots basically had to play every week since the midway point when the "undefeated" season picked up steam.

Really. The Ravens and Giants battles, both on the road, had the aura of playoff games - very, very big playoff games.

What you are going to hear from both the Patriots and the opposition is that New England is now 0-0.

They will be correct. Playing at 0-0 is so much easier than 12-0 or 15-0.

The Patriots also have earned the right to play two games at Gillette Stadium, which has been as much of a home-field advantage as there is in professional sports.

Since Tom Brady has become the starter, the Patriots are 51-10 at home, including playoff games. And one of those losses was the finale against Miami in 2005, which the Patriots played their reserves for the last three quarters.

Think about what this team had to endure since the summer. As was noted a few weeks ago, Bill Belichick was posed with the question of an perfect season after the Patriots' third game. If that's not an NFL record, I don't know what is.

The Patriots have not looked their best since Thanksgiving. That's the point. They still won them all during the toughest stretch of every season.

Up to this point, they've played in an NFL-record six night games, with three of those breaking all-time records in viewership. Earlier in the season, they also had to play the league's No. 2- and No. 3-ranked teams, the Colts and Cowboys, respectively, on the road.

So pressure in the playoffs? Heck, the playoffs will be a sigh of relief for the Patriots.

Everyone is the same boat - lose and you go home. That means there is as much pressure on the opposition as there will be on New England.

I wouldn't bet against the Patriots. Not in January or February. Not after what they got through just to get here.

E-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.