Patriots backup quarterback Matt Cassel chooses his target during the first day of training camp in Foxboro yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

FOXBORO — From trying to live up to the pressure of being labeled as the best team in the NFL , to Spygate, to becoming the first team in NFL history to complete a 16-game regular season with a perfect record, to recovering from one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, the New England Patriots went through a lot of trials and tribulations last season.

But everyone on the Patriots rosteryesterday on the opening day of training camp, were glad to be back from their five-month vacation though they were not able to put on a show for an expected crowd of more than 6,000 because of yesterday’s rainstorms.

“I think everybody is excited to be back,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after New England went through a two-hour workout inside the Dana-Farber Field House. “It was a short offseason because we played all the way until the end. We are all disappointed with the way it ended — there is no doubt about that. But you know, that’s part of the competition. You can’t always control your outcome.

“You control how much you put into it and I know this team put everything we could into it. I think that is part of what helps you move forward is to say, ‘OK, we did the best we could and it didn’t turn out the way we would have liked but sometimes that happens.’ We’re moving forward with just as much energy and excitement as we always have. Hopefully we can go out there and compete as hard as we can and put ourselves in the best position possible every week.”

The Patriots say that last season’s 18-1 campaign is long forgotten.

A distant memory.

They say that everyone has moved on from Super Bowl XLII.

“Last year is last year,” Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas said. “It’s done. It’s over with. We are just moving forward.”

Moving forward seems to be the theme at camp this year. The defending AFC champions are hoping to erase the disappointing end to an otherwise perfect 2007 season.

“You try to put the last season behind you, win or lose, and then you just look forward to training camp,” Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said.

For many players, training camp is the time they need to put in before the regular season starts to get back in game shape and work on their fundamentals. Offensive tackle Matt Light said that most of the Patriots arrived yesterday in good shape.

“I thought we had a pretty good mini-camp,” Light said. “I felt like our offseason program went really well and when guys came in here, they were in shape.”

“I think everybody is focused,” Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork said. “Everybody here knows we need to get better. We know, starting each day, we have to take each practice one day at a time.”

The Patriots broke several NFL and team records last season, which will be hard to repeat. But the Patriots say that the only way to accomplish their goal this season, which is to win Super Bowl XLIII, is to play better than they did last season.

“There are a lot of things that we did wrong [last year] that we can improve on and get better in so that’s what we are focusing on, getting better at everything,” Patriots running back Laurence Maroney said.

Wilfork said: “Every day we approach this, we try and get better. Every year it’s the same. We just had our first practice and we are going to try to get better for the next practice. That’s our motto — just take one day as it comes and go from there.”

The Patriots have looked to head coach Bill Belichick as an example as to how to put last season behind them and to get focused on the upcoming season, Brady said.

“We start with taking leadership from our coach and the example that he sets,” Brady said. “I don’t think he’s too concerned with what anybody did last year, including us. He is concerned with what we did today and what we are going to do tomorrow, so I think that’s where it all starts…We are going to try to do the best we can do every day in practice and hopefully that leads to a lot of wins.”

As talented as the Patriots roster is, history will be against them in their quest to return to the Super Bowl.

Since the Buffalo Bills lost four consecutive Super Bowls from 1990-93, no Super Bowl runnerup has reached the conference title game the next season. From 2001-2005, the Super Bowl runner-up missed the playoffs.The Patriots say that they will not succumb to the Super Bowl bridesmaid curse.

“I just think as a unit we have a lot of ability to do some good things this year,” Patriots running back Sammy Morris said.

“We want to be better than what we did last year,” Maroney said.

roblee@projo.com