Rodney Harrison knows all about the stress and strain of striving for perfection. He was on the 2007 Patriots team that fell just short of making an indelible mark on history, losing their only game of the year to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

As he watches the 2015 Patriots, now at 9-0, in the midst of another run at perfection, he actually puts some credence into those who hold the view a loss would be beneficial to the Pats before the postseason because it would eliminate the added pressure and burden associated with achieving the rare feat.

After all, isn’t the first and foremost goal winning the next championship?

“As bad as I wanted them to win last week because it was the New York Giants, trust me, I was telling a buddy, ‘I wouldn’t mind if they lost one along the way,’ ” Harrison told the Herald Friday. “I just really wouldn’t mind because it does take off a lot of pressure and stress, and you don’t have to deal with all the questions. Same with Carolina. They’re going to have to deal with the same questions, and all the hype, and the expectations. It’s real. The pressure’s real. And it’s something that a lot of people . . . as much as we do all that coachspeak, and that one game at a time, and all that stuff, the closer you get to it, the more pressure it is.”

This wasn’t the view we expected from Harrison, who is now an NBC analyst, but he lived it. He went through the pressure-cooker and steady build-up in 2007, so he knows what it is, and what it will be like for the Patriots down the road if they continue on this path.

“Look, the Patriots are better at it than anyone, ignoring the noise, and funneling all that into it not being a big deal,” Harrison said. “And our team (in 2007) did a great job at ignoring the noise. But there was still noise. And we dealt with it better than I thought any team could have dealt with it. (Coach Bill) Belichick did a heck of a job keeping us really focused. But at the same time, there’s still that pressure of winning 19 games. That’s a lot. Nineteen straight. That’s very difficult to do. It’s not the end of the world if you lose a game, and you have to regroup, and it humbles you a little bit, and it makes you a little hungrier, kind of refocuses you. It’s not the end of the world.”

Asked if going into Super Bowl XLII undefeated, and having carried that winning streak and everything that went with it into that game, had an impact in how it turned out, Harrison said it had no bearing on the outcome.

“Honestly, I think the Giants played the game of their lives,” Harrison said. “We didn’t have a great week of practice. I didn’t believe we had a great week of practice. I think Michael Strahan said it best: They could play us 10 times, and we’re going to beat them nine times. The one time they beat us, was the one time they needed to beat us. We were a better football team. They just played better on that day. We didn’t get the production from our team that we were used to getting.”

The concept of losing, or thinking a loss might be good wouldn’t seem to compute if you’re a Patriot.

Troy Brown, another member of the 2007 team and a Patriots Hall of Famer, didn’t warm up to the losing idea at all when asked about the notion last week.

“That’s hilarious. It really is,” Brown said. “I don’t think the pressure had a whole lot to do with being outplayed (by the Giants in the Super Bowl), or certain aspects of the game. You don’t line up and go out there to lose games. You play to win. You don’t go out there to lose. That’s how it is. Pressure has nothing to do with being outplayed.”

Brown was incredulous at the thought. He understands the point, it just seems ridiculous to him, which is interesting given Harrison’s take.

“Expectations are to always win, go out and win the next game. That’s been the mentality for a long time,” Brown said. “It’s hard to get off that. It’s been pounded into them. You win. You always put yourself in the best position, so you’re in great position come January so that you don’t have to leave home.”

The risk of starting a trend, and possibly losing the grip on a first-round bye and home-field advantage, wouldn’t be worth any release of pressure for perfection.

Naturally, the 2015 Patriots don’t openly talk about going undefeated, but wouldn’t that 19-0 mark be something to want to reach out and grab, especially if you get close?

Harrison concurred, but tried to put it back in the perspective of playing for the Patriots.

“It’s not like we had a mindset of pursuing perfection,” he said. “It was just a mindset of winning.”

In 2007, there were a lot of blowouts early. The games got tougher as the year wore on.

Said Harrison: “When you continue to win those close games, when you win against the Ravens, and all those close games we had, it does take a toll. Not even pursuing the Super Bowl, just winning football games. It takes a toll on you. No matter how good we were, mentally, escaping close games, and winning games by blowouts, staying focused, and making sure you say the right things, and do the right things as far as the media, and not say anything stupid, all that stuff, it is pressure. Because you have to be careful about everything, plus, you have to go out there and win a football game on Sunday.”

The Pats were having a pretty easy time of it for a time this season, but then the injury bug hit, crippling the offensive line, and then taking away Dion Lewis and Julian Edelman, two of Tom Brady’s favorite weapons.

Maybe that takes some of the pressure off because the expectations are now lowered. We’ll see, but if they keep winning, the closer they get to hitting 19-0, the harder it will become.

“I love my Patriots, but if they lose one game, trust me, it would be a relief,” Harrison said. “I just don’t want to see them have to deal with that pressure and scrutiny It’s just so difficult to do.”

Evans awed by Panthers

Former Patriots fullback Heath Evans sounds pretty impressed by the Panthers, who like the Patriots, are 9-0.

“They can beat you in a lot of ways. They can beat you scoring six points. And they can beat you scoring 30 points,” the NFL Network analyst told the Herald last week. “If they’re healthy, they’re a nightmare. Their defense is fast, its physical, and they want to hit everything that moves. They’re sound, and they create matchup problems for any kind of offense.”

So what’s their Kryptonite?

“I’d say they’re one play away from being a garbage football team if (quarterback) Cam (Newton) gets hurt,” Evans said with a laugh. “He means that much. Everything he does is amazing. He should be in the MVP race.”

Marshall: Pats killed me

The Jets believe the Patriots provided other teams a blueprint on how to cover wide receiver Brandon Marshall.

The numbers support the theory. In the first five games of the year, Marshall caught 37 passes for 511 yards and four touchdowns on 53 targets, with four games of 100-plus receiving yards. Coincidentally, the Jets were 4-1 in those games.

In the four games since, beginning with the Week 7 loss to the Patriots, Marshall has 20 catches for 242 yards and two TDs on 43 targets, with a single 100-yard game. The Jets record in those games is 1-3.

The difference?

“The Patriots game,” Marshall told The New York Post on Thursday, referring to the 30-23 loss Oct. 25 in Foxboro. “That’s when it started happening. Before that, teams were doubling me, but they would give us one, two, three shots a game when they weren’t and we were capitalizing on them. In the Patriots game it was more (double coverage). Now, teams are saying, ‘Take him out the whole game.’ ”

Fellow Jets receiver Eric Decker said the way the Pats defended Marshall was “an eye-opener for some other teams.”

In that game, Marshall, who was primarily covered by Logan Ryan with safety help, had just four catches for 67 yards.

Inside info on Witten

Given interim Miami coach Dan Campbell played for Dallas from 2003-2005, there’s a lot of interest in the Dolphins game against the Cowboys today. Campbell, a tight end, actually mentored Jason Witten while he was there.

During a conference call with the Dallas media, Campbell didn’t want to take much credit for what Witten’s become.

“He’s a self-made man and I would like to think that I helped a little as he was growing from his rookie season, but let’s call it what it is, he’s a special human being,” Campbell said. “He’s somebody that as a rookie came in and worked. He wanted to be good, he wanted to understand the game, he was always tough from the time he walked in and that’s a credit to him, that not me or anybody else. He really did that himself and that’s why he’s the type of player that he is even to this day.”

BC gunslingers in a duel

There is an nteresting matchup of former Boston College quarterbacks in Atlanta today where the Falcons host the Colts. Matt Ryan and Matt Hasselbeck quarterbacked the Eagles 10 years apart at The Heights.

The Falcons’ Ryan, 30, has been a long-timer admirer of Hasselbeck, 40, who will be leading Indianapolis during Andrew Luck’s absence.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Matt and have been since I was young,” Ryan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He comes from a school that prepares you really well for the NFL especially at the quarterback position.”

Ryan got to be friends with Hasselbeck’s younger brother Nathanael, and often peppered him with questions about Matt and Tim Hasselbeck, both of whom played in the NFL.

“I got to know him pretty well and I would wear Nathanael out with questions about Matt and Tim because you know, you’re a young guy,” Ryan said. “(I asked), ‘What did they do? How do they prepare? What do they do now?’ All those kinds of things. I’m sure he’d get kind of annoyed with that stuff, but I was a huge Matt Hasselbeck fan.”

Matt Hasselbeck, meanwhile, holds Ryan in the highest of esteem for what he’s accomplished at The Heights and in the NFL.

“He’s a great player and I can’t say enough good things about Matt and his wife Sarah — they’re legends,” Hasselbeck said. “There’s Doug Flutie, and then there’s Matt Ryan and then there’s a huge drop-off after that” in Boston College quarterback history.