With the end of Week 6, there’s a new team sitting atop the AFC East.
It’s the New England Patriots.
With the Buffalo Bills losing 24-14 to the Atlanta Falcons in their Monday night bout at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, both the Bills and Patriots have 4-2 records.
Mike Vrabel’s team inches over the Bills for the top spot with the tiebreaker given the recent 23-20 victory over the Bills at Orchard Park a week ago.
The last time the Patriots had a hold on first place was late November in 2021, Mac Jones rookie season. After starting out 2-4, the Patriots ripped off seven straight wins from October 14-Dec. 6 to sit at 9-4 before hitting their bye week.
The Bills, who have won five straight AFC East titles, started that year 5-2, but went 2-4 over the next six games to drop below the Patriots.
Bill Belichick’s team, however, was unable to stick the landing going 1-3 over the final four games to finish 10-7 as a wild card team, while the Bills went 4-0 the final stretch to win the division at 11-6.
The 2025 Patriots started slowly, but have won three straight with wins over Carolina, Buffalo and New Orleans. The Bills meanwhile, who started out 4-0, have now lost two straight.
Vrabel has made a point of encouraging the players to enjoy the wins, but also understand they need to play better to keep the streak going.
“We will never not enjoy and embrace winning in this league,” Vrabel said following Sunday’s 25-19 win over the New Orleans Saints. “But I do think that guys are very aware of the fact that it can be better and that it will have to be better the more that we go along here and play.
“So I think that that’s a good sign that they know that there are some plays that we left out there that we could have played better. But to do that on the road and be able to end it with the ball offensively in victory formation is fun.”
Karen Guregian is an award-winning journalist who has covered sports professionally in Massachusetts since 1984 and has been a columnist at MassLive since 2023. Events covered: Super Bowl, World Series, NBA…
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