FOXBOROUGH -- While it took longer than most years, the Patriots clinched the AFC East for the 11th straight year Saturday with a 24-17 win over the Bills.
The Patriots are now 12-3 on the year and can earn a first-round bye with a win over Miami next Sunday.
The 11 straight division titles are the most in NFL history and they join the Braves (14) as the only franchises from the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL to win at least 10 straight division titles.
All the players had reactions to the accomplishment after the game, some different than others.
Bill Belichick: "Good. It's great. Love wearing this hat."
Tom Brady: "I think it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. It's hard to do, and it's a lot of effort, a lot of hard work, and a lot of people are just putting – day-after-day, just coming in, and sitting in these chairs and trying to do what's right for the team. So, it's a great reward. It's a great step for us, and it's great to control the ability to that, too. So, to win and know that you win the division is pretty cool. So, happy for us, happy for our team, and our coaches, and our families and our fans. And hopefully we can build on it and go play great next week."
Julian Edelman: "It means a lot. It's one of the first goals that you set early in the spring. When you're forming your team you want to go out and win your division. It was good to go out here and get one."
Rex Burkhead: "It does feel good. A lot of hard work goes into that. But at the same time we understand we are not where we want to be at. We got a lot more football left to be played and we just have to continue to improve and get better every day."
Nick Folk: "It has been a while since I've been a division champ. I was a NFC East division champ twice in Dallas, that was a long time ago, 10-plus years. So it feels good."
Stephon Gilmore: "It feels great. We did it on offense, defense and special teams. It wasn't easy and it was a great win. It's great to win the division."
Matthew Slater: "You're happy to see guys that haven't been able to [win] in this league yet, get a taste of winning. That's why you play, you play to win. Everybody has been brought here because Coach Belichick thinks that they can help this football team win. It's good to see guys have success and it's good to see the team have success."
