It's easy (for me at least) to forget that the Colts put together a great season in 2007, going 13--3, including a meaningless loss in Week 17 (the game had Playoff implications for other teams, so the Colts, to their credit, played a competitive game most of the way).
As a result, the Pats didn't lock up Home Field until they got to 14--0 on December 16 (they held the tie-breaker over the Colts...both teams had been 7--0 when the Pats beat them in that year's "Game of the Century" in Indy).
Until the 16th, then, winning every game wasn't just a matter of an undefeated season but of being sure they wouldn't have to play the Colts in Indy again.
Their win on the 16th left games against the Dolphins and the Giants as the only obstacles to a perfect Regular Season, with Home Field secured.
At that point, the "Perfect Season" pressure that had been building since the Indy win became intense. If the Pats had tanked either or both of those games, a lot of Pats fans would all have been as furious at the team as Indy fans were in 2009 when they got to 14--0 and tanked the last two games with Home Field secured.
Ironically, both the 2007 Patriots' and the 2009 Colts' seasons had the same outcomes: SB losses.
Speaking just personally, I felt at the time that the pressure was just too great. I can't deny that I was pulling for them to beat Miami (remember all the hoopla over whether the Dolphins would stop the Pats from achieving what only their Franchise had achieved?) and the Giants. But, I had a feeling in my gut that a loss would be a relief. Particularly, in retrospect, in the case of the Giants. While a loss would have been a huge letdown...at the time... Belichick doesn't lose to a team twice in a season.
I have always felt...without a single shred of anything vaguely resembling proof or evidence
...that the Patriots would have come into SB XLII in a far different frame of mind had they been on a mission to avenge that loss. I think they would have covered that 14 point spread and then some. But, that's just my opinion and I'm not trying to convince anyone else to see it my way.