Win 'em all.

That's what the Patriots have done so far. That's what they're going to continue to try to do. Fourteen down. Five to go. They're going to play 'em all, and so, the Patriots figure, they may as well win 'em all.

The next two, some fools might suggest, don't really matter, because the undefeated Pats have locked up home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs and so could go on cruise-control the last two games of the regular season, resting superstar quarterback Tom Brady and selected others of his teammates in order to ensure they'll be healthy when the AFC semifinal game is played at Gillette Stadium the weekend of Jan. 12-13.

The suggestion itself is not, by the way, ridiculous. But what is foolish is bringing it up to coach Bill Belichick, as happened at Sunday's postgame press conference.

Better you should wave a red flag in front of a bull.

Take it easy? The Patriots?

Take a hike.

Belichick wants to entertain that question about as much as he'd like to entertain Jets coach Eric "Stool Pigeon" Mangini next summer at his house on Nantucket. Rest players? Belichick wants to hear about that as much as Roger Clemens wants to hear questions about steroids and HGH.

Suggest to the coach of the Patriots that what happens in the next two games really doesn't matter, and he looks at you as if you'd suggested he punt from his opponent's 2-yard line.

"With the number-one seed wrapped up," he was asked Sunday, "does the context of the games change the way you'll utilize your personnel?"

"We'll do what we always do," Belichick replied.

"When you say: 'Do what we always do,' does that mean…" the questioner went on, before Belichick cut him off.

"It means we'll prepare for the game. We'll break down the film, the players will come in, we'll give them the game plan, we'll get ready to go, and we'll go play on Sunday."

"How about as far as what players…" the questioner persisted.

But that was as far as he got.

"That's what we always do," Belichick said. "We'll play the same way. We'll do what we always do. We'll come in, we'll prepare, and we'll play the game on Sunday. That's what we do."

And they will, of course, win.

Just like they did Sunday. Just like they always do. Even if they don't always look good doing it.

The Pats were far from perfect in maintaining their perfect record. Fact is, they were almost as sloppy as the weather in a 20-10 win over "Tattle-Tale" Mangini and the Jets.

When the postgame handshake between Belichick and his estranged former protege is warmer than the game-time temperature, you know it was not an afternoon to be outside, throwing a football around.

But who cares? When the weather outside is frightful - and it was downright unpleasant all day, what with sleet and rain following early-morning snow - a 20-10 win is so delightful. Especially when it leaves you 14-0.

That undefeated record is, of course, the unstated reason why Belichick and the Patriots will play each of the last two games as if they were playing in the Super Bowl.

They don't talk about it, but it's the world's worst-kept secret that the Pats not only want to win the NFL championship for the fourth time in seven years; they want to make history while doing it.

As every football fan knows, only one other team has gone unbeaten and won the Super Bowl: the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 17-0.

The Patriots' goal is to go 19-0 -- a perfect season.

Most coaches and players say they take things "one game at a time." Except that what they say and what they, in fact, do are often quite different. They look ahead. They take an opponent lightly. They dwell on the game just played. They lose focus. Then they lose a game.

Not the Patriots.

Thanks to Belichick, they really do focus only on the game they're playing. Oh, they're very much aware of the goal, but they also understand that, to achieve it, they have to devote all their attention, all their energy, to the game they're about to play.

Even it's the 1-13 Dolphins, who Sunday averted a winless season by beating Baltimore, in overtime, in Miami.

The Patriots will prepare for them as if they're the Colts or the Cowboys. Belichick will say -- and you'd have to say he'd be right -- that the Dolphins are playing as well as they have played all season. That's not saying much, but it's the truth.

Brady will play. At least until New England has a lead that Belichick deems safe - something along the lines of, say, 49-0, with two minutes to go.

Near the end of Sunday's postgame press conference, Belichick again was asked: "With everything now wrapped up, why wouldn't there be an advantage to letting up and maybe resting guys?"

"I think," the coach said tersely, "I already answered that question. Anything else?"

The only question now is whether the Patriots will run the table, whether they can win five more games, whether they will make history.

If you've been watching them win one game at a time since the season opener Sept. 9, you probably know the answer.