In many ways, Super Bowl XXXIX was a typical New England Patriots Super Bowl. Despite blowing out opponents on their way to the big game, when they’re playing for the Lombardi Trophy, the Patriots seem to play every team and every game the same way.

First they underwhelm you. Then, they figure out how to keep up with you. Gradually, nearly imperceptibly, they stick a nose in front, all the while teasing you with the illusion that victory is just one stop and one big play away.

Then, before you know it, the clock has run out and the scoreboard tells you that once again, it has not been your night.

The Patriots, narrow 24-21 winners over the Philadelphia Eagles in last night’s Super Bowl, are the best football team that no one is really afraid of. After three titles in four years, there is still something about these Patriots that allows their victims to somehow believe they have not been beaten so much as hoodwinked.

They are the kind of team that beats you so softly that an opposing head coach can say, without embarrassment, “We didn’t lose. We just ran out of time.”

It is hogwash, of course, but that is the way the Patriots do it.

That is why the Jets could limp away from a six-point defeat by the Patriots earlier this season absolutely convinced that in a rematch, the result would be reversed. That is why Indianapolis Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt felt emboldened enough to declare the Patriots “ripe for the picking” prior to his team’s divisional playoff destruction at the hands of the Pats three weeks ago.

And it was why Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell, an underachiever with everything but his mouth, thought it wise to throw down a challenge to Rodney Harrison, the only member of the Patriots’ decimated defensive backfield he could even name.

But Mitchell and the rest of his teammates learned what everyone else who played the Patriots this year had already known. The Patriots have the smarter head coach, the cooler quarterback, the more opportunistic defense, and the tougher running attack. Most of all, the Patriots have the kind of poise that comes with winning at the highest level.

The Eagles were tough, all right, and none of them were tougher than Terrell Owens, who caught nine passes while playing on an ankle held together with drywall screws. They hung in despite quarterback Donovan McNabb’s first half mistakes, and despite Brian Westbrook’s inability to dent the Patriots’ run defense for more than 37 yards in the first 30 minutes.

Incredibly, the Eagles were still alive with 99 seconds left in the game after they forced the Patriots to kick the ball away one last time. But that is the way the Patriots toy with you, like a kitten with a ball of yarn, rolling it out and pulling it back.

After Josh Miller’s punt rolled dead inside the Philadelphia 5-yard line, Mc-Nabb and the Eagles were technically still alive but spiritually and physically dead, needing to move the ball 96 yards in 46 seconds to win it, and at least 66 to even have a chance to tie.

And it was only fitting, of course, that McNabb’s last desperate pass would settle into the hands of Harrison after being tipped by the intended receiver.

“To me, this trophy belongs to these players,” said Belichick, who with the victory surpassed the legendary Lombardi’s postseason record with 10 wins in 11 games. “They met all comers this year. These players have just played great all year, they’ve played their best in the big games, and they really deserve it.”

Sincere or not, Belichick was being way too modest. Over the past four years, the Patriots have been a continuing study in how to win football games despite adversity, a quality many athletes love to claim for themselves but rarely live up to.

Belichick’s Patriots have lost a starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe. In his place, they found a two-time super Bowl MVP in Tom Brady. They cut All-Pro cornerback Lawyer Milloy over money, then lost defensive backs Ty Law and Tyrone Poole to injury.

In their places, Belichick and his soon-to-be-departing defensive coordinator, Romeo Crennel, plugged in rookies like Randall Gay and Asante Samuel, and pressed an aging wide receiver, Troy Brown, into duty as a nickel back. Last night, they lost another defensive back, Eugene Wilson, and had to turn to another rookie, Dexter Reid.

It didn’t matter. Despite McNabb’s second-half heroics – he rebounded to complete 30-of-51 for 357 yards, three TDs, and three crushing interceptions – it was the Patriots who came up with the plays of the game.

Tied at 7 in the third quarter, Belichick went to a gimmick play that had worked in last year’s Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers, lining up linebacker Mike Vrabel as a tight end. Vrabel wound up making the most acrobatic catch of the night, a juggling snag for the Patriots’ second touchdown.

Then, after the Eagles had stormed back to tie the game on a McNabb TD pass, Belichick took a page from the Mike Ditka book of short-yardage offense, inserting offensive tackle Russ Hochstein at fullback to clear a scoring path for Corey Dillon from the two.

Meanwhile, although the Eagles were still in the game, the urgency of the situation seemed to have escaped them. Trailing by 10, they took far too much time breaking the huddle and hustling to scrimmage while driving for the score that pulled them to within a field goal.

Like all the other Patriots’ victims in the Super Bowl, the Eagles no doubt thought they had matters well under control.

“The players and coaches put so much time and effort into this, that’s what hurts the most,” said Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid. “I was proud of the way they battled, but we just came up a little short.”

Sound familiar?

Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.