Last year at this time the Patriots were 8-0 and in an obvious race against history, while Patriots fans were so juiced up with excitement they would have failed an NFL drug test.

Today you can barely measure their pulse, as the plump body of Patriots Nation, fattened by past success, still lies in bed battling the hangover of the Super Bowl loss and Tom Brady’s injury.

Time to get over it, folks. And Dr. Feelgood is here to help.

From my examination of New England’s vital signs, the Patriots are in the midst of a heavyweight battle and the second half of the 2008 season is shaping up as a classic NFL thrill ride. It’s time for you to get on board.

To paraphrase that great physician of fervor, Pete Carroll, here are 10 reasons you should be pumped & jacked about the second half of the 2008 season.

10. The Education of Matt Cassell

Were you one of those jokers who called Dennis & Callahan back in September, demanding that the Patriots bench Cassell in favor of Kevin O’Connell?

If there’s any justice on this Earth, somebody removed your feeding tube by now.

Eight weeks into the season, Cassell’s acquitted himself well, if unspectacularly, in a sport where even the greats of the position take a year or more to get their groove on.

Can he turn into a legitimate NFL quarterback? We’ll learn more over the next eight games. His performance will not only impact New England’s playoff hopes here in 2008, it will have a direct impact on the moves they make in the draft and in free agency in 2009.

9. Division Games that Actually Mean Something

Locked in a tight division battle for the first time since 2002, New England’s four second-half games against the Dolphins, Jets and Bills (twice) will make or break the team’s postseason hopes. Win at least three, and the Patriots take the division. Win just one or two, and it looks like the first season without playoff football around these parts since 2002.

8. Old Friend Kurt Warner

Keep your eye on the Dec. 21 showdown against Arizona at Gillette. Cardinals QB Kurt Warner is a legitimate MVP candidate, in the midst of his best season since he led the Rams into their Super Bowl XXXVI showdown against the Patriots.

Warner is on pace to pass for 4,862 yards – which would be the second most in history, and more than Tom Brady passed for during his historic 2007 season (4,806).

The Cardinals will be fighting for the franchise’s first home playoff game since – get this – 1947, back when the Cardinals played in Chicago. The Patriots will be in a desperate fight for a playoff position, period. This one will be fun.

7. The Gisele Bundchen Photo Shoot

According to my advanced statistical metrics, the globe-trotting, Brady-dating supermodel turns up half naked on the internet once every eight weeks. Keep the mouse handy.

6. Another Long West Coast Trip

For the first time in franchise history, the Patriots face back-to-back West Coast games at two different times in the same season.

The Patriots already played games at San Francisco and San Diego on consecutive weeks in October. They head cross-country again in December, with a primetime Sunday night battle at Seattle on Dec. 7, followed by a game at Oakland the following week.

Back in October, the Patriots chose to spend the whole week out west, saving a pair of cross-country trips. It didn’t work. New England beat the 49ers, but got man-handled by the Chargers the following Sunday.

The Patriots can’t blow it this time. The struggling Seahawks and pathetic Raiders are two teams they absolutely must beat to be a legitimate contender.

5. Buffalo Wings and Beef on Weck

Nobody circles the tailgate table like Buffalo Bills fans, thanks to classic western New York dishes like hot wings and beef on weck. That’s some good eatin’.

This year the Patriots head to Buffalo on Dec. 28 for a season finale that will, in all likelihood, determine the AFC East title. Or, at the very least, it will have an impact on playoff seeding. The Bills last beat the Patriots back in September 2003 – a stretch of nine straight losses to New England.

If you’ve ever been to Buffalo, you know that Bills fans are loud and ornery and sick and tired of losing to the Patriots.

They’ll be rocking for this one … and you’ll be well fed.

4. New England’s Historic Second-Half Domination

The Patriots under Bill Belichick have always played their best ball in the second half of the season, and that bodes well for a team that needs to scratch and claw for every win.

Since Belichick took over the team in 2000, the Patriots are 46-26 (.569) through their first eight games, and 50-14 (.694) over their last eight games.

If history holds true, the Patriots will be 10-6 at worst this season and 12-4 at best. In either case, it seems the best days for the 2008 Patriots are still ahead of them.

3. Winter Football

Years from now, the defining image of Patriots football in the early 21st century will be the wintry games that built the dynasty: fans at Gillette throwing snow to the beat of Gary Glitter in 2003; snowy wins over the Colts in both the 2003 and 2004 playoffs; a menacing Tedy Bruschi, blowing a cloud of steam on an icy night in Foxboro; and, of course, the Snow Bowl victory over Oakland that launched the New England dynasty.

With a pair of post-Thanksgiving games at Gillette, and another in Buffalo, the end of the 2008 season offers the promise of more icy fireworks that make football in the Northeast so entertaining late in the year

2. Bill Belichick’s Legacy

After the Patriots were prison-shanked by the Chargers a few weeks ago, I wrote here that it was a sign that Brady, and not Belichick, looked most responsible for building the Patriots dynasty.

But the tide started to turn in the coach’s favor with consecutive wins over Denver and St. Louis. If Belichick can forge a legitimate Super Bowl contender with a quarterback who hadn’t thrown a pass in anger since high school it would cement his legacy as perhaps the best coach in history. He’s on track to do so right now.

1. The Battle for the First-Round Bye

Hard to believe but, at 5-3, the Patriots still have a legitimate shot at capturing a first-round bye. It all hinges on the Nov. 30 showdown against the Steelers (6-2) at Gillette, in a meeting of two of the NFL’s premier franchises and most consistent contenders.

The Patriots have dominated the series over the past decade, winning six of seven meetings since 1998, including a pair of victories in the AFC title game (both at Pittsburgh).

Beat the flawed Steelers again and the Patriots might get a week off in January before hosting a divisional playoff game.

In a year that began with such a painful hangover, that’s a reason to get pumped & jacked.

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.