What Patriots are saying about winning AFC East title

“A lot of hard work goes into that. But at the same time we understand we are not where we want to be at.”

The New England Patriots clinched an AFC East title for the 11th consecutive year. It has become routine for New England.

This season, the Buffalo Bills (10-5) didn’t make it easy on the Patriots (12-3). A Bills’ win on Saturday could have kept Buffalo in the race for the divisional title. Instead, the Patriots put together a 24-17 win over the Bills. The win also showed a level of competency which New England hasn’t displayed to this point. They were 0-3 against the AFC teams currently slated to make the playoffs, with losses to the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs.

Against the Bills’ impressive defense, Tom Brady and the Patriots offense put together their most impressive performance yet. Though the defense wasn’t perfect, they put together a solid drive in the final moments of the game, with a turnover on downs to end the Bills’ chances of a win.

QB 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.”

Coach Bill Belichick

On his divisional title hat: “Good. It’s great. Love wearing this hat.”

CB 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.”

WR 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.”

RB 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.”

WR 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.”

Kicker 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.”

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