Bill Belichick's teams almost never get beaten twice in a season. (AP)

FOXBORO — Aside from the obvious motivation of playing for the No. 1 seed in the AFC East, there’s something else the Patriots are playing for – history.

The Patriots haven’t been swept in a season series since 2000, his first year in New England, when the Patriots went 5-11. The Jets and Dolphins turned the trick in that season but the Bills have a chance to sweep the series with the Patriots for the first time since 1999.

The Bills, of course, had the chance in 2003, when they won the infamous “Lawyer Milloy” game, 31-0 in the season opener. The Patriots exacted revenge by the identical score in the season finale that year at Gillette. The Bills have lost all nine lifetime meetings at Gillette and haven’t won in New England since sweeping the season series in ’99.

Is there anything about the staff’s preparation that motivates them the second time around?

“I think it’s really just more about the players,” Bill Belichick said on Friday. “The payers go out there. They’re the ones that block and tackle and catch and kick and make the plays. If you have good players and they go out there and do those things then you win. If you don’t and if you don’t coach them well, even if you have them and you don’t do a good job of coaching them then things don’t turn out so well.

“I think when you talk about those kind of historical things, the things to point to is the performance of the players. That encompasses a lot of players and a lot of games, but they’re the ones that are out there winning them. Talk to Mike Vrabel or [Tedy Bruschi] Bruschi or Troy Brown. Those guys have won a lot of games. Honestly, they’re better qualified to answer that than I am because they’re the ones that won them.”