Patriots Clinch AFC East Crown For Eighth Straight Season
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots' 2016 season began with much more uncertainty than normal, with Chandler Jones being traded to Arizona, the team lacking a first-round draft pick, and Tom Brady facing a four-game suspension. Along the way, they lost Rob Gronkowski due to injury and Jamie Collins to a trade.
Despite everything, the stamp on the Patriots' season will be the same as it always is: AFC East Champions.
The Patriots secured the division on Sunday evening with a 16-3 victory in Denver over the Broncos.
It is the Patriots' eighth consecutive AFC East crown, and their 14th in 16 years. The two seasons in which the Patriots didn't win the division -- a 9-7 record in 2002, and an 11-5 record in 2008 -- were lost in tiebreakers.
The Patriots also clinched a first-round bye for the seventh straight season, setting an NFL record.
"It's a huge accomplishment," head coach Bill Belichick said. "It's a lot of hard work, going all the way back to the offseason program, OTAs, training camp, a lot of tough games. Won a lot of games on the road, which is always hard to do – that's another one. But, you know, we still have more we can accomplish and our goals can now be reset. But this is the first one, to win the division. So it's definitely something to be proud of, something that we accomplished. But now we can reset and try to accomplish more this year."
This year through 15 weeks, the Patriots' 12-2 record has them in position to potentially finish with their best record since 2010, when they went 14-2. They went 13-3 the following year and went 12-4 in each of the following four seasons, including the Super Bowl-winning year of 2014.
"It's always a good feeling," defensive captain Devin McCourty said. "You come in [to the locker room] and you see guys that have played in this league a lot and are really good players but just haven't won division championships. Marty came running in, screaming, 'Where's my hat?!' So it's a great feeling."
It's become a routine in New England, but this year it should certainly be considered an achievement. They weathered the storm of not only being without Brady for four weeks but of losing backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to injury in Week 2. Rookie Jacoby Brissett won his first career start on national television against the Houston Texans before losing the following week.
Since then, the Patriots have gotten some of the best quarterback play they've ever gotten out of any quarterback in franchise history -- including Brady himself. Even at age 39, he's managed to insert himself into the thick of the MVP race, despite that four-week absence. Though he did not throw a touchdown pass in the win over Denver, he overcame a very rocky history when playing in the city of Denver.
Sunday's win came largely thanks to the Patriots' defense, which kept Denver from scoring in the second half and allowed just one lone field goal on the day, while also forcing two turnovers in the second half.
"It was a real strong effort by our team today. I'm really proud of these guys," Belichick said. "Short week, tough game with Baltimore on Monday night, come out here and play against a great organization like the Broncos, it's a big challenge for us. Our players did a great job – they prepared well and they came out and played a physical game, a tough game against a tough team. I thought we deserved to win. I thought we made enough plays to win – in all three phases of the game. Good, solid team win."
Defensive end Chris Long, in his first year with the Patriots after spending eight years in St. Louis without ever reaching the playoffs, spoke after the win.
"It means a lot," Long said. "To me, it's just a big team win on the road in December against a really good team in a tough place to play. So that's what this means to me. The hat's cool and everything, but this was a great team win, and we've got more work to do."
Chris Hogan, likewise in his first year with the Patriots, enjoyed the moment as well.
"The hat feels pretty awesome. It's pretty amazing to be a part of this team right now. Trying to let it sink in. This will be my first hat, so I probably won't take it off for a while," Hogan said. "This is just one step here. This feels great, but we've still got a couple of games left here and then hopefully some more after that. We'll feel good about this, but then we've got to get back to work next week."
The Patriots will finish out the regular season with a home date vs. the Jets on Christmas Eve, followed by a trip to Miami on New Year's Day.