SAN DIEGO — The Chargers woke up here this morning wondering how they had lost to the Patriots. If, that is, they slept at all during a tortured night of tossing and turning, going over and over in their anguished minds how they’d blown a game they certainly could have — and, arguably, should have — won.

Consider, among the many, many things San Diego might have done differently, that if Marion McCree had simply knocked down the pass by Tom Brady that he instead intercepted — and subsequently fumbled right back to New England — on fourth down from the Chargers’ 41 midway through the fourth quarter, then San Diego might have taken possession there and gone on to win, 21-13, or by an even larger margin, instead of losing, 24-21.

“I never did,” McCree said, when asked if he’d considered batting the ball to the ground, rather than picking it off. “I was trying to make a play, and any time I get the ball, I’m going to try to score. If it’s a two-minute situation, that’s the only time I’ll try to knock the ball down.

“I was trying to score. I saw there was an ‘O-line’ man in front of me, and I knew if I could make him miss, there was a lot of room in front of me. But, before I had a chance to do that, Troy Brown stripped the ball from me. If I don’t get the ball stripped away from me, I think we win.”

And what are we to think about this surprising, serendipitous, triumph by the Patriots?

Well, if they didn’t lose to the Chargers, is there any reason to think they’ll lose again in this suddenly charmed season?

If they could beat the talent-laden Chargers, who have nine players headed to the Pro Bowl — but none, now, to the Super Bowl; if the Patriots could come to San Diego and beat the AFC’s top-seeded team, a team that had won 10 in a row, finished 14-2, and was undefeated at home, why would they lose to the Colts? Or, following that, in Super Bowl XLI to whichever team comes out of next Sunday’s junior-varsity game, also known as the NFC championship?

The answer is, they wouldn’t. They won’t. Lose, that is.

The Patriots are heading to Indianapolis on Sunday. We’ve seen Pats-Colts playoff games before, and we know how they turn out.

Yes, Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, and the oft-maligned (for its well-documented, regular-season woes stopping the run) Indianapolis defense gained a small — tiny; miniscule, even — measure of revenge back in early November for recent postseason beatings at the hands of their perennial playoff nemesis, the Patriots, by winning in Foxboro, 27-20.

But that was then, and this is now. That was the regular season, and this is the playoffs. And everyone knows that, in the playoffs, the Patriots do not lose. Except in Denver. Certainly, they don’t lose to the Colts. Not in Foxboro, anyway. And not, the way things are going for star-kissed, if not exactly star-filled, franchise, in Indianapolis, either.

Not after what happened here Sunday, when the Chargers kept finding ways to lose, and the opportunistic, make-the-most-of-every break, Patriots somehow found a way to win.

“You just can’t make too many mistakes,” said San Diego’s all-pro linebacker, Shawne Merriman, “because, as soon as you do, they take advantage of them. They did that quite a few times [Sunday.]”

The Chargers made way too many mistakes, both physically and mentally. The Patriots were far from perfect — Brady, who was under constant pressure from the five and six pass rushers regularly sent after him by San Diego defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, improved to 12-1 in the postseason, despite throwing three interceptions — but still made the most of their chances. Especially their second chances.

And so it would be hard to find anyone in New England today who doesn’t like the Patriots’ chances to, yet again, go all the way.

Does anyone doubt that the Pats now will go to Indianapolis and beat Manning and Colts coach Tony Dungy — neither of whom ever has been to a Super Bowl — once again. After which, they’ll go to Miami and win another Super Bowl — their fourth in six years.

Already the Team of the Decade, another championship would make the Patriots a Team for the Ages.

This isn’t New England’s best team. It’s not as good as either the 2003 or 2004 teams, both of which went 14-2 and combined to compile an NFL-record, 20-game winning streak over those two seasons. Nor is this team even as good as the 2001 club, which overcame the loss of its starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, in the third game of the regular season, as well as a 5-5 start, and went on to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl by upsetting the St. Louis Rams.

But if the Patriots didn’t lose Sunday in San Diego, why would we think they’d lose this coming Sunday in Indy to the Colts’ prolific pitchman — meaning his television commercials; not his passing stats [although they are gaudy] — or in Miami, three weeks from now?

There were plenty of reasons they could have, and probably should have, lost to the Chargers. Since they didn’t, there’s no reason to think the Patriots will lose again.