03:21 PM EST on Tuesday, December 30, 2003

What teams should we be rooting for on Wild-Card Weekend? What would be the best matchup for the Patriots in the playoffs?

Those are the questions many fans have been asking as the AFC East-champion, franchise-best 14-2 Pats, winners of a club-record 12 in a row, took a few days off before returning to practice to prepare for the AFC semifinal game in Foxboro, most likely on Saturday night, Jan. 10.

Against?

It could be Denver, which this weekend will be trying to beat the Colts in Indianapolis for the second time in two weeks. Or the 12-4 Titans, second to the Colts in the AFC South, who'll visit the 10-6 Ravens, champions of the AFC North. Or perhaps Baltimore, Super Bowl champions three years ago and still possessing one of the NFL's best defenses.

It really doesn't matter to the Patriots which of those teams they have to play.

Really. It doesn't.

"We know that the next team we play is

going to be one of the best teams in the AFC, whoever it is," coach Bill Belichick said Saturday, after the Patriots had completed the best regular season in team history.

"We're going to have our hands full. We'd better be ready and well-prepared to play against them. Whoever that team is -- some of them we played, possibly we haven't, I don't know -- but whoever it is, they will be a good team and we will have to play our best against that kind of competition."

That's not just CoachSpeak.

That's the way the always-prepared -- certainly mentally, and as best they could be physically, given the number of injuries they had -- Patriots have approached this entire incredibly successful, utterly amazing season.

Who would they like to play? What would be a good matchup for the Pats?

Who knows? How can you possibly tell?

You think the Vikings weren't happy Sunday to be playing the Cardinals, losers of seven straight, to wrap up the NFC North title? What better matchup could the Rams have had in their bid to secure home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs than playing the lowly Lions? And how about the Bengals, who only had to beat the Browns, losers of five in a row -- and eight of their last nine -- in order to finish over .500 for the first time since 1990 and force Baltimore to beat the Steelers Sunday night in order to make the playoffs?

But the Rams couldn't hold a 10-point halftime lead at Detroit, and so let the top seed in the NFC slip away. Minnesota's collapse was much worse. The Vikes blew a double-digit lead in the final two minutes to the Cards, giving up the winning touchdown on the last play of the game.

The Eagles were the beneficiaries of the Rams' pratfall, only a week after they had surrendered the No. 1 seed by losing in Philadelphia to the 49ers, who hadn't won on the road all season.

And the Bengals lost to the Browns, guaranteeing Baltimore the division title before having to take the field against Pittsburgh.

All those games are the kind that the Patriots do not lose.

That's why they have the best record in the NFL. Not only did they beat the good teams -- they were 7-0 against teams with winning records; 5-0 against playoff teams -- but, since September, neither did they lose to teams they were supposed to beat.

They never stumbled, as the Rams just did in Detroit. Never let a game they should have won get away, as the Vikings did in Arizona. Never lost to a bad team, as the Bengals did to the Browns.

That's why it doesn't matter who the Patriots play in the conference semifinal game. The Broncos, the Titans, the Ravens -- the Pats have no preference.

They can beat them all. They already have beaten the Broncos in Denver, 30-26, and started their club-record winning streak with a 38-30 victory over the Titans in Foxboro the first Sunday in October.

As far as other playoff teams, the Pats trounced the Eagles in Philadelphia the second week of the season, 31-10; shut out the Cowboys, 12-0, in Foxboro, and beat the Colts in Indianapolis, 38-34.

But a key reason the Patriots have kept on winning is that they are very much aware they could lose to anybody, at any time.

"The most important thing for our team right now," Belichick said, "is to prepare well, and then play well, in the next game. That's where the focus is."

That's where the focus has been all season. Under Belichick, the Patriots don't look ahead. They don't look back.

Instead, they look good -- week, after week, after week.

They are undefeated at home this season, having allowed just one touchdown in their last six games in Foxboro, and that was a meaningless score to Jacksonville late in the fourth quarter, long after the outcome had been decided.

So you've got to like their chances against anybody they play in the playoffs.

But you've also got to realize, as the Patriots certainly do, that there is a very real chance they could lose to whatever team they have to play; that, despite their winning streak, despite their defensive dominance at Gillette Stadium, what has been a truly wonderful season could come to an abrupt and very disappointing end.

"It's going to be a death-match now," Belichick said. "Whoever is standing at the end, that's who moves on. That's really all it's about. It's not about what happened in the past, how anybody got anywhere."

The Patriots have gotten where they are by preparing meticulously and playing tenaciously. It really doesn't matter who they have to play two weeks from now. What matters is that they are playing. And, if you've seen them play at all during this marvelous season, you know they'll be ready, no matter the matchup.

The real question is not which playoff pairing would be best for the Patriots. It's how whatever teams that come to Foxboro match up with the Pats, the best team in the NFL.