The 21st-century Patriots are the best big-game team in NFL history. In fact, nobody else is even close.

But the best news for New England?

The good times may not be over. Seemingly against all odds, the Tom Brady-less Patriots are on pace to prove the best big-game team of 2008, as well.

Year after year this decade, New England shot down the toughest teams in pro football – a gridiron gunslinger locked in a tense, steely-eyed standoff before unloading its lead into the good, the bad, the ugly and everyone else the NFL could send its way.

When the stakes were highest, the competition was toughest, the weather was coldest, the doubters were loudest, the odds were longest, the vultures circling above were hungriest, the Patriots found a way to win more often than any team that’s ever stepped onto the fields of the NFL.

We have the proof.

The Cold, Hard Football Facts, for example, put a lot of stock in Quality Wins – or how teams perform against opponents with winning records. It’s a deceptively simple concept, but a concept that most football fans and pigskin “pundits” routinely ignore at their own peril.

The premise is this: any decent team can beat up a weak schedule. Only the true elite can stare down a tough schedule and still emerge champions.

And no team has successfully shot its way out of town (and into the record books) more consistently than the 21st-century Patriots. In fact, only three teams in history can claim 10 wins over Quality Teams in a single season.

    * The 1979 Steelers went 10-3 against Quality Teams, including a Super Bowl victory.
    * The 2003 Patriots went 10-0 against Quality Teams, the best team ever against                opponents with winning records, including a victory in the Super Bowl.
    * The 2004 Patriots went 10-1 against Quality Teams, including a victory in the Super Bowl.

The 2007 Patriots were one game away from adding their name to this list of elites. With a win against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, they would have joined the 2003 Patriots as the only teams in history to go 10-0 against Quality Teams.

Beating tough teams is more than just a trend. It’s been a way of life for Bill Belichick’s Patriots. Of the best teams in the Super Bowl Era against Quality Opponents, three of the top five belong to New England:

    * The 2003 Patriots went 10-0 vs. Quality Teams
    * The 1981 49ers went 6-0 vs. Quality Teams
    * The 1972 Dolphins went 5-0 vs. Quality Teams
    * The 2004 Patriots went 10-1 vs. Quality Teams
    * The 2007 Patriots went 9-1 vs. Quality Teams

New England’s ability to consistently beat tough competition is the great untold story of the team’s dynastic run. Most dynasties were built against relatively easy schedules. The Patriots built their legacy against a schedule that would have ruined any other team.

Just look at the undefeated Dolphins of 1972. They made their way through an entire season without a loss for one reason: they played just two games all year against teams with winning records, before squeezing out three more Quality Wins in the playoffs. Combine a great team with an easy schedule and you get the only undefeated team in NFL history.

Most of New England’s teams of the 21st century would have destroyed that schedule.

Fast forward to 2008: Once again, the Patriots find themselves among the best big-game teams in the league.

New England is one of only two teams that are 2-0 against Quality Opponents at this point in the season. The other 2-0 team is the defending champion Giants.

But here’s the best part: the Patriots have destroyed those Quality Opponents – the 4-3 Broncos and 4-3 Jets – by an average of +21.5 PPG. No team in football comes close to that margin of victory against teams with winning records. (The Giants are closest, at +8.5 PPG.)

It also pays to remember the circumstances of each Quality Win. The Patriots entered the Jets game in Week 2 on the depressing heels of the Brady injury. The Jets entered the game amid the Brett Favre euphoria. Few expected New England to win.

Yet the Patriots pulled out a surprising 19-10 victory at the Meadowlands, against a team that’s 4-2 in its other six games.

The Patriots entered the Week 7 game against the Broncos on the heels of a crushing 30-10 loss to the Chargers. The Broncos entered the game with a 4-2 record, including wins over the Chargers, Saints and Buccaneers. Few expected New England to win.

Yet the Patriots turned in a dominating 41-7 performance, the single most lopsided victory over a team with a winning record in the NFL this year.

Sure, it’s only two games, so the evidence in 2008 is scant. Two games against Quality Teams do not make a complete season.

But it’s all the evidence we have so far. And given New England’s track record this decade, it’s obvious that the Patriots have a rare ability to step up and produce victories in the biggest games of the year.

Year after year, in game after game, the Patriots have pulled out wins when everyone counted them down and out. The list is endless, but the highlights are memorable: beating the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, turning an intentional safety into a rare win at Denver in 2003, shutting down the prolific Colts offense in the 2004 playoffs, knocking off the 14-2 Chargers in the 2006 playoffs.

This unprecedented big-game ability is something to remember as the wounded Patriots and their unproven quarterback prepare for the toughest shootouts of the season.

Kerry J. Byrne is the publisher of ColdHardFootballFacts.com . His self-congratulatory column will appear here each Wednesday during football season. Send fawning praise, death threats or pictures of your 19-year-old sister to contact@coldhardfootballfacts.com.