The New England Patriots are one win away from completing just the second perfect season in the history of the NFL since the merger in 1970.

The Patriots barely squeaked by the Chargers in the AFC Championship Game Sunday afternoon in frigid Foxborough. New England advanced to their fourth Super Bowl in seven years by downing San Diego, 21-12.

New England’s victory tied the 1985 Chicago Bears for most wins in a season. The Super Bowl shuffling team from the windy city went 18-1 that year and ironically beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

New England’s win marked the first time in more than 100 years that a team in the four major pro sports opened a season with 18 straight victories. The record for wins to start a season was set in 1884 by St. Louis in baseball’s Union Association, the Elias Sports Bureau said.

The burning question from Sunday’s AFC Championship Game is whether the Patriots are starting to wear down from the grind and pressure of the undefeated season or were they uncharacteristically looking ahead to Super Bowl XLII.

The Patriots should have crushed a team like the Chargers into the ground on Sunday. San Diego was playing with a gimpy quarterback, they were missing the best running back in the game, and their best receiver was hobbling all over Gillette Stadium.

Yet the Chargers somehow manage to stay in the game the whole way. 

In fact it is easy to say even though San Diego lost, that the Chargers outplayed the almighty Patriots and that they were the team Sunday playing with a heart of a champion.

Tom Brady is one win away from being proclaimed the best quarterback ever to play the game in the history of the NFL.

On Sunday, Brady looked more like a quarterback auditioning for a backup spot in the Arena Football League.

Brady completed 22 of 33 attempts, for a measly 209 yards. The league MVP throw a pair of touchdown passes but he was picked off three times in crucial parts of the game.

Brady made several stunningly poor throws that fluttered in the wind, Randy Moss was a non-factor for the second straight game and the highest-scoring team in NFL history sputtered all afternoon.

Maybe the Patriots had a letdown Sunday because they were playing the Chargers. The Patriots had been gearing up for a rematch with Indianapolis in the AFC Championship Game since they beat the Colts, 24-20, November 4th at the RCA Dome.

A second win over the defending Super Bowl champions would have solidified the Patriots as the best team ever to step on a football field. The Colts were the only obstacle left standing between New England and a 19-0 season.

Unfortunately for New England, the Colts pulled another January choke job in the RCA Dome as they were eliminated by the Chargers in the Divisional Round.

The Patriots are a heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl over the New York Giants on February 3rd in Glendale, Arizona. That would cap the best single season (19-0) ever played in the history of the NFL but it wouldn’t cement the 2007 Patriots as the best team ever to play the game. 

The Patriots would’ve been no match for Lombardi’s Packers of the 1960′s, Chuck Noll’s Steelers of the 1970′s, Bill Walsh’s 49ers of the 1980′s, and Jimmie Johnson’s Cowboys of the 1990′s.

If the 2007 Patriots played the best team from each era listed above, they would be lucky to go 2-2. Realistically they would probably win one game.

I can guarantee one thing, the Patriots would have a better shot at going 0-4 against those powerhouses than going undefeated like they did this year.