The quarterback of the only 16-0 team in NFL history says there's only one way to approach perfection: Don't even think about it.

Don't focus on what one more victory will achieve. Instead, zero in on the smaller steps that will get you there. That's what the New England Patriots did two years ago when they also were just a win away.

It's something neither the Saints not the Colts need be concerned with anymore.

"Every time we came in, we focused on what our job was that day, the things that we could handle that day," Tom Brady said. "For practice days, it was about how we could have a great practice and meetings and walkthroughs and so forth. And then when the game came, the game came. I think we, as a team, were mature enough to handle that, but every team is different."

The Saints, new to the national spotlight, ended their run at an unbeaten regular season in their 14th game in front of their loud home fans with a loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

The Colts pretty much handed away their chance by sitting their regulars in the third quarter Sunday with a 15-10 lead. The Jets came back for a 29-15 victory.

So the drumbeat that would have gotten louder during a countdown to kickoff in Buffalo for a 16-0 record _ from bloggers, talk radio, sports television stations, beat writers, columnists and fans _ won't happen.

Going undefeated was hardly a hot topic of conversation among the 2007 Patriots even as the wins piled up, not with coach Bill Belichick discouraging such talk.

"It was more of trying to eliminate the distractions than create more for ourselves," said Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, the coordinator of the Patriots record-setting 2007 offense. "We were focused for the next game. We knew how hard that would be to accomplish, so to think ahead about doing it was a waste of time."

Safety Rodney Harrison was the go-to guy for quote-seeking reporters. From his locker at the end of a row with plenty of space for them to congregate, he would comment directly on almost any subject.

But 16-0? Oh, no.

"I can be 100 percent honest with you," said Harrison, now an analyst for Football Night in America on NBC. "I never had one discussion with anyone about it because we were in such a zone and we had been bred and taught since I got there in '03 to play one game at a time."

It's the mantra of all coaches. Look ahead at your own peril. But it takes on added weight coming from the no-nonsense Belichick. The Patriots' wins in the Super Bowls in the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons just reinforced that.

Then came 2007.