even despite Miami's win this week, I think that may be the case?

We clinched the AFC east on opening kick off 9/9/12.

 

Heh, good point...

 

i guess it's true about the clinch, that will be nice. Not a gimme but it still should be a W

 

That's a clinch. 

With four games to go, New England will be four games ahead of anyone else.

New England owns head to head tiebreakers versus Buffalo and New York, so they're out.

New England will own at least a split with Miami and at least a 5-1 divisional record.  Miami will have a 3-3 divisional record at best, so Miami is out. 

The division champions t-shirts and caps need to be printed and in the stadium next Sunday.

I currently have New England up by 9.3 points in this game.  They have 10 days to prepare for this contest, and Miami has only a week of rest.  Hopefully New England isn't looking ahead to a bigger game versus Houston. 

 

The Patriots can clinch a home playoff game with a win at Miami on Sunday. Brady talked about it today.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4735134/bradys-been-on-roll-since-seattle

The stakes are high for the Patriots in Week 13, as a win would punch their ticket to the playoffs and clinch the AFC East division crown. However, Brady said that a win on Sunday wouldn't change his team's approach at all going forward.

"No. It assures you a home playoff game. I think that's goal number one," he continued. "That's what we can accomplish this week. We always talk about championship games, and this is a championship game. You talk about must-win games, they're all must-win games at this point. We've been winning four or five games in a row now, and every game has been important, and as the season goes on, the next game is always more important than the one you just played. I think that's the case this week too."

 

Miami might pull a surprise or two out, but I think the Patriots should win it. I say 31-26 NE.

Win clinches division, question then is do you go full bore to try to get bye, or go in pre-season mode happy with a 3 or 4 seed?

In response to ccsjl's comment:

Haha... Ask BB that. It'll be to get as high as they can get.

In response to ccsjl's comment:

Haha... Ask BB that. It'll be to get as high as they can get.

I'm not so sure...Remember the Flutie drop kick game to end the season so the pats could go to Denver and not Pittsburg for the first road game?

In response to ccsjl's comment:

That was between the 3 and 4 seed back then. There is a much bigger diference between the 2 and 3 seed of course than the 3 and 4.

There's still 5 games left. We could win this one and then go 1and 3 and come in second in the division    We win 3or 2 against miami then we clinch.  What's to say that we beat the fins and we lose to the 9 ers and the texans.  Then we beat the jags and the whole season rides on Miami the last game of the season.  Fins would need to win 4of 5. It could be a 10-6 tie the fins pick up 2 more division wins, we drop 2.  That's 5-3 in the division a piece. Fins win the head to head.   Lot of ifs but its on till its off.  

The way I see it yes. The most any other team in the division could win would be 9 games an the Patriots would still have the best division record. We know they have won it but a win Sunday would make it official.

Miami wins out and they win the division at 11-5.   That would be the best we could do. 11-5 and they would have beat us 2x. 

In response to Philskiw1's comment:

The original thread topic includes a Miami loss this weekend so they would be unable to win out. By the way Miami is currently 5-6 so even winning out would at best make them 10-6.

In response to Philskiw1's comment:

Best Miami can do is 10-6 if win out. Jets and Bills could go 9-7. Pats just have to beat Miami once in their 2 head to head games, and can lose all the remaining games. Pats at 9-7, would hold all tie breakers as they beat Jets and Bills both games, and if split the 2 head to head with Miami, Pats 5-1 division record give them the AFC East...