New England Patriots win AFC East for the first time since Tom Brady was QB as Bills’ reign ends with heartbreaking loss
The New England Patriots are AFC East division champs for the first time since Tom Brady was quarterback – after the Bills’ defeat to the Eagles sealed their fate.
The Patriots had taken care of their end of the bargain hours earlier in New York, thrashing the woeful Jets 42-10 at MetLife Stadium.
But it was the Buffalo’s last-gasp defeat to Philadelphia a couple of hours later that sealed the title for New England – for the first time since 2019.
The last time they won it was at the end of the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era, with the quarterback leaving for the Buccaneers at the end of that season.
Since then, the Bills had won five straight division titles, with the Patriots finishing last in each of the last two seasons, with 4-13 records.
This year, though, it has been a different story with Drake Maye at quarterback and Mike Vrabel in charge, and the Pats are back on top.
Drake Maye led the Patriots to a stunning victory over the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon
The victory – followed by the Bills’ loss – sealed the Pats’ first division title since the Brady era
On Sunday, Maye threw a career-high five touchdown passes before getting the rest of the game off in the third quarter – after New England scored a TD on its first six drives.
‘It comes down to unfinished business,’ Maye said. ‘You want to go 8-0 on the road. That would be something we thought would be pretty cool. In this league, it’s hard to win on the road and we accomplished that today.’
‘Winning the division, we’ve got to win out to win the division,’ Maye added. ‘That was our mindset. If that means the No. 1 seed is at play, that’s what we’re trying to do.’
Maye was 19 of 21 for 256 yards and a 157.0 quarterback rating with TD tosses to Rhamondre Stevenson – who also had a touchdown run – Austin Hooper, Stefon Diggs, Hunter Henry and Efton Chism III before being lifted by coach Vrabel for Joshua Dobbs with 5:31 left in the third quarter.
Maye joined Tom Brady (11 times) and Drew Bledsoe (twice) as the only New England quarterbacks to reach 4,000 yards passing in a season.
‘They don’t give me a vote,’ Vrabel said of the league MVP buzz around Maye, ‘but there is nobody else we want as our quarterback.’
Dobbs’ first drive ended the Patriots’ touchdown run, with New England settling for a field goal on its seventh possession – but Andy Borregales clanked the 41-yard attempt off the right upright.
It didn’t matter much by then, though, as the Patriots cruised to their eighth 13-win season in team history.
Buffalo lost to Philadelphia to ensure their five-year AFC East reign came to a brutal end
Head coach Mike Vrabel has turned the Patriots around, after a woeful 4-13 season in 2024
In a road game that looked and sounded more like a Patriots home game with all the red, white and blue-clad fans who made the trek down to MetLife Stadium, New England finished with no regular-season road losses for the third time in franchise history. Only San Francisco (1984, 1989 and 1990) has also gone undefeated on the road in three seasons since 1970.
‘Coming in here and going 8-0 on the road, that´s a big thing for us as a young team,’ cornerback Christian Gonzalez said.
Meanwhile, it was another embarrassing showing in the home finale for the lowly Jets (3-13), who have lost four in a row and have two straight seasons with multiple losing streaks of at least four games. New York became the fifth team in NFL history to lose four straight by 23 or more points in one season, and the first since the 1972 Patriots.
‘Highly, highly disappointed in the way that we came out,’ coach Aaron Glenn said. ‘Today was probably the one time I feel like our effort wasn´t as good as I want it to be.’
