Not resting on their laurels

FOXBOROUGH -- Around 2:30 a.m. yesterday, the Patriots' plane landed at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I. About an hour later, the team buses arrived at Gillette Stadium, slowed by the snow that buried the region. And shortly after they unloaded their bags, the players and coaches were in a meeting, rehashing bits of their 41-27 win over Pittsburgh in Sunday's AFC Championship game and discussing logistics for the Super Bowl ahead.

No wonder Bill Belichick wasn't feeling his best yesterday morning.

"I'm barely standing," said the coach.

If Belichick was running on fumes, one can only imagine the weariness that hounded the players. Yet some of them were at the stadium yesterday morning, doing workouts and getting treatment. They are officially off until Thursday.

"We're all pretty spent," Belichick said. "We put a lot into it. There was a lot of energy and work put into the game. We left it out on the field. The players certainly put all their energy out onto the field. We had a number of guys who were at the point of exhaustion and needed a little help at halftime to keep going. I think it took a lot out of us, but that's the way it should be."

Yet fatigue is expected for players, who, as Belichick noted, have been playing football for the last six months -- with the requisite practices, meetings, and walk-throughs -- and still have one game remaining. They are looking to put an exclamation point on a season that in the last two weeks has seen them smother a high-octane offense and steamroll a top-ranked defense.

But it is not just a season that is ending. For Belichick and his two right-hand men, the Feb. 6 Super Bowl will be the last gig for a trio of artists that since 2001 has created game plans that toppled fearsome attacks and cracked tall-standing defenses to the tune of two NFL championships -- with a third perhaps to come.

Belichick is hardly coming across as sentimental about it. But with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis headed to Notre Dame and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel possibly on his way to Cleveland, he conceded after Sunday's win that the last days of the administration are on his mind.

"It kind of hit me after the game," said Belichick. "Yeah, it did. It kind of hit me after the game. But from my standpoint -- I don't want to speak for them -- I think we've come from pretty much the same place. We put a lot into this. We're going to work hard to finish what we started."

What they started was a season against the same opponent with which they'll finish. On Aug. 13, the Patriots kicked off the exhibition season with a 24-6 win over the Eagles. And last year, coming off a humiliating 31-0 loss to Buffalo in the season opener, the Patriots defeated Philadelphia, 31-10, the first of 14 regular-season victories and three postseason wins that culminated in the 32-29 Super Bowl triumph over Carolina.

But Belichick and his coaches know that the opponent has changed significantly since the last meeting. He praised the Eagles for leading the NFC all year, and sounded thankful for the two-week break that will allow him and his coaching staff to study film and forge a strategy to counter star quarterback Donovan McNabb and Philadelphia's aggressive defense.

"We play once a week; that's it," Belichick said. "We get three hours once a week to put our product on the field. There is so much that goes into that three-hour performance. It's not like other sports where you're playing every day or every other day. You have all week and all that time and you have one opportunity to go out there and do your best."

So it should come as no surprise that New England's first day of Super Bowl preparation began before dawn yesterday at a time when snowplow drivers should have been the only ones working. For a team on the brink of consecutive Super Bowl victories and a coaching staff on its final run together, nothing less would be expected. . . .
Antwan Harris's second tour of duty with the Patriots came to an end yesterday when the AFC champions waived the defensive back. Harris, originally a sixth-round pick in 2000, was signed Jan. 13.