FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – The New England Patriots returned from their bye week to face the same question they’d heard before they left: What about The Streak?

Their answer was the same: What streak?

Sure, they know they haven’t lost a regular-season or playoff game in a very long time, although 11 of them weren’t with the team last season. In fact, today is the first anniversary of their last loss, 20-17 at Washington, in a game they had a chance to win in the final minute.

Since then, the Patriots have won 17 games, including their second Super Bowl in three years. That’s one less than the NFL record shared by five teams, but they know it will be tough to tie it if they don’t focus only on their next game.

And that happens to be on Sunday in the same stadium where they suffered their only other loss last season, a 31-0 season-opening rout at Buffalo.

“You can talk about streaks all day, but I’ve never heard a player in here say anything about it,” center Dan Koppen said. “It’s always been the media.”

On Monday, there were more reporters than players in the locker room during the 45-minute media access period. It was the players’ first work day since last Thursday, and they have their regular day off Tuesday before resuming preparations for the Bills.

Buffalo is 0-2, losing both games 13-10, and has a new coach, Mike Mularkey, after a 6-10 season cost Gregg Williams his job.

“They’re only a couple of plays away from being 2-0,” Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said, “so we can’t look at their record because, just like (Sunday), who thought Houston was going to beat Kansas City. It doesn’t matter what record you have.”

The only record that matters this week to Harrison is 3-0, not the record for consecutive wins.

“To be honest with you, I did not even think about the streak until you just mentioned it,” Harrison insisted. “Really. I’m telling you. Guys are not even thinking about the streak. We are thinking about going up in there and just beating Buffalo

“We’re trying to win a game and, if it happens to continue the streak, that’s fine. But we’re just trying to win that one game in the division that’s going to help us get to 3-0.”

If the Patriots beat the Bills, they should be favored to go 4-0 and set a record of 19 consecutive wins. That’s because their next game is at home against struggling Miami in the opener of a three-game homestand that includes two unbeaten teams, Seattle and the New York Jets.

Miami is one of the five teams that shares the 18-win record, having accomplished it by going 17-0, including three playoff wins, in 1972 then winning the opener in 1973. The streak ended with a 12-7 loss at Oakland, then Miami won its next 10 games and went on to capture its second straight NFL title. The Dolphins were 32-2 over those two seasons.

The other teams NFL sharing the record are Chicago in 1933-34 and again in 1941-42, San Francisco in 1989-90 and Denver in 1997-98. The Cleveland Browns also won 18 straight in 1947-48 but were in the All American Football Conference.

One task facing the Patriots is getting into a regular-season routine. They opened the season on a Thursday night, then had their next game 10 days later then followed that with the bye week.

“We’re going to be able to start a regular rhythm and get on track as far as having a scheduled standard plan that we do week in and week out,” defensive end Richard Seymour said.

Just as they’ve gotten into a year-long rhythm of winning that has brought them to the brink of an NFL record victory streak.

“Obviously, we’d love to be a part of history and be successful that way,” linebacker Roman Phifer said, “but it’s not going to really make a difference as far as us trying to achieve our goal, which is to win championships.”

AP-ES-09-27-04 1809EDT