Patriots Junior Seau, left, and Brandon Meriweather savor the moment at Giants Stadium following their Saturday night victory.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.Y. — Late Saturday night, as a few dozen reporters and cameramen were crowded inside an auxiliary locker room at Giants Stadium waiting for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick to deliver his postgame news conference, a muffled but unmistakably joyous sound leaked into the room:

“Awwwwww, yeah!”

That’s the response Patriots players use after games when Belichick or another individual is giving them praise. But on this night, it was louder, prouder.

And it should have been.

Regardless of whether they go on to win Super Bowl XLII in little more than a month — and make no mistake, that is the ultimate goal of this team — what the Pats accomplished in going 16-0 cannot be understated.

The National Football League is built for parity. Teams share revenues so that small-market teams such as Green Bay and Buffalo don’t fall financially too far behind clubs in cities such as New York and Dallas. There is a salary cap, preventing richer clubs from hoarding top talent. Teams that finish in the bottom of the standings one year get first crack at the best college players in the next year’s draft in the hopes of helping them improve quickly.

No one team is supposed to be substantially better than any of the others. No team is supposed to struggle for any length of seasons, nor is one supposed to have sustained success.

But when New England’s players and coaches walked off the field Saturday night, they did so as the first team to complete an undefeated regular season since the NFL adopted a 16-game schedule in 1978, from 14 games previously.

In all, the Patriots have won 19 consecutive regular-season games, eclipsing the league record they set in 2003-04, as they won their final three games in 2006.

“It is really exciting to be a part of this football team and what these guys did today,” Belichick said. “All the credit goes to the players. We are going to take a little bit of time and enjoy this one and feel good about what we have accomplished.”

By following Belichick’s mandate that they face each game as its own entity, looking back only to correct mistakes made the previous week, the Patriots put up ‘W’ after ‘W.’

“All year long we talked about it,” said tight end Benjamin Watson. “The only way to go 16-0 is to go 1-0 sixteen times.”

As with any great accomplishment, however, there is a little bit of luck involved. The Pats cruised to their first eight victories by a combined 331-127 score. But they hit a bit of a snag in Week Nine in Indianapolis, needing a sack and forced fumble by Jarvis Green on Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning, which was recovered by Rosevelt Colvin, and a key third-down conversion from Tom Brady to Wes Welker to pull off a come-from-behind win.

There was also a late interception of the Eagles’ A.J. Feeley in Week Twelve, and the Steelers’ questionable decision to run a trick play on the goal line when they needed a touchdown two weeks later.

Perhaps the Pats’ greatest gift of fortune, however, came thanks to Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. With the Patriots facing a fourth-and-1 play to keep alive a potentially game-winning touchdown drive, Brady kept the ball, and was stopped by the Ravens’ defense.

Or so it appeared. The play was voided thanks to the timeout Ryan called a heartbeat before the ball was snapped. Had the timeout not been called, Baltimore would have gotten the ball back on downs and would have been able to run out the clock.

Instead, due to some penalties by both teams and some good toe-tapping by Jabar Gaffney to stay inbounds in the end zone, New England pulled out the win.

The Patriots have also been lucky in that they have been fairly healthy. New England suffered a few season-ending injuries, to key contributors such as running back Sammy Morris, linebacker Rosevelt Colvin and backup defensive lineman Mike Wright.

As one of the senior members of the Pats — only Troy Brown has logged more time in Foxboro — veteran linebacker Tedy Bruschi has endured mediocre seasons as well as championship seasons with New England. He understands what it takes for a team to enjoy success.

“The best accomplishments are the ones that you can share with others,” he said. “This one is shared not just with the players, but with the coaches, the strength staff, the training staff, the equipment staff.”

Bruschi was careful to stress that New England may have been undefeated in the regular season but must now complete an undefeated postseason to fulfill its ultimate goal.

Cornerback Ellis Hobbs, who had a timely interception against the Giants that helped put the game away, summed things up best:

“It’s 0-0. If we lose, it’s a failure. You don’t play the season to be 16-0; you play the season to make the playoffs,” he said. “Going 16-0 is a bonus. We’ll take all the bonuses we can get.”

smanza@projo.com