All year, the Patriots have been chasing history.

Last night, they caught it.

For not only did the Pats finish the regular season 16-0, the first team ever to do so, but they achieved their slice of football immortality, became a team that will be talked about for the ages, long after the cheers of this season disappear into the mists of time.

That's what last night did, the night they caught history.

They had been chasing it for a while now, even since it became apparent early in the season that not only was this the best team in football, it also was a team for the ages. You are not supposed to run through an NFL season like you're the best team in some bad high school league. You are not supposed to blow out teams by halftime. You are not supposed to make it look as easy as they made it.

So they've been chasing history for a while, even if Bill Belichick and everyone else tried to downplay it. We've heard the mantra from Belichick all season long, how we're only worrying about the next opponent, how we're only worrying about this week. That was the party line, and every week we got another dose of it.

Not that anyone really believed it. Not really.

From the moment that "Spygate'' broke after the first week of the season, the franchise embarrassed, a tarnish put on everything the Patriots had accomplished in the Belichick Era, it only seemed to give this team more resolve.

You think we had to cheat to win?

You think we needed help to do what we did?

You think this is all that big a deal?

You doubt us?

Well, watch.

And so we did. And week after week it was the same, whether it was on the road in Indianapolis and Dallas, or at home against the opponent of the week. It didn't matter. The Pats played. The Pats won.

Fifteen weeks worth of victories.

Until we all began to think that it was easy.

The Pats had raised the bar so high, had been so good, that it was almost as if we started to take them for granted, as if each game was just another pit-stop on the road to their coronation.

Last night was supposed to be more of the same. Two-touchdown favorites. The big question all week was whether Tom Coughlin was going to play his regulars, or just go through the motions and get ready for the Giants' playoff game against Tampa Bay next week. As if the Giants were just this week's designated opponent, nothing more. Just another minor speed bump on the expressway to immortality.

But every week the pressure grew, even as Belichick tried to dismiss it. Newspapers. Talk shows. The national commentators. It all swirled around like some windblown punt, complete with the idea that the Patriots had become the new villains of the NFL, the team everyone outside of New England loves to hate.

A recent ESPN poll had them as one of the most hated teams in sports. The recent ESPN The Magazine article on the best sports stories under a headline that says, "Perfect Villains.''

"Who says cheaters never prosper?'' the article says. "Sometimes they seem unbeatable.''

So why all the bad love?

Part of it is the fallout from "Spygate,'' of course.

And some of it is no doubt jealousy, the simple fact that there are people in the hinterlands who are just plain tired of the Patriots, the same way they would be tired of any team that had the success the Pats have had.

Then there's the Belichick Factor.

We are long used to his style around here. We don't expect him to be warm and cuddly, a fountain of sound bites. We don't expect him to be anything more than what he is, the best football coach of his generation, someone who you want standing on the sideline coaching your team.

All the rest of it?

Who really cares?

For none of that mattered last night.

And making it even better was that it wasn't a cakewalk, another joke game. As if the football gods said, yeah, you may go 16-0, yeah, you may be the first team in 35 years to go undefeated, but you're going to have to earn it.

And earn it they did. Complete with the pressure of being down, 28-23, going into the fourth quarter, the Giants playing their redemption game, their mini-Super Bowl, their huge game on a huge stage.

So there were the Pats having to come from behind, as if the '72 Dolphins had joined the Giants on the field, as if the Pats had to beat them, too, as well as the Giants. Had to beat history, too.

Maybe that's how it should be.

Maybe you couldn't have written a better script.

For last night was cashing in on the promise that's been there since this season started, and we began to think that this was a team for the ages. Last night was the culmination of this team's destiny.

Last night was this team getting their slice of immortality, a team that will live forever in football history.

For this Patriots team has been chasing history all year.

Last night, they caught it.