At 10-3, New England can now finish no worse than 10-6. The second place Dolphins (currently 7-6) can't do any better than 10-6. Even though the Pats haven't officially cliched anything yet, they're still guaranteed to finish with the most wins in the division; for the thirteenth year in a row.I alluded to this while discussing the Patriots NFL best win percentage since 2001 (when Tom Brady first took over as quarterback) last month, and now it's official. They've won 10 (and about to be 11) AFC East titles during that span, but in the other two seasons they still tied for the top record in the division. In 2002, the year following their first Super Bowl victory, there was a three-way logjam for first at 9-7 with the Dolphins and Jets (who were officially champions), and New England missed the playoffs on tie-breakers. During the Brady-less Matt Cassel season of 2008 the Pats again lost out on tie-breakers (this time to Miami), and became the first 11-5 team to ever miss the postseason.
According to the club's official twitter account, they're also the only NFL franchise to post a winning record every year since the turn of the century:
The #Patriots are the only team in the @NFL to have recorded 9 or more wins in each of the last 13 seasons.
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 2, 2013
Here's last year's version of this piece: The Patriots greatness that nobody is talking about
...and the 2011 edition as well: The NFL is full of parity year to year. Except for here.
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