FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – The New England Patriots have a new winning streak.

And it started a lot more decisively than the last one, which ended two weeks ago at an NFL best 21 games.

On Sunday night, the defending Super Bowl champs put together their most dominating performance in two seasons when they beat the Buffalo Bills 29-6. One week earlier they went to St. Louis where they beat the Rams 40-22. And the week before that?

That’s when they actually lost, a 34-20 setback at Pittsburgh that was their first since Sept. 28, 2003 at Washington.

“It was pretty obvious the Steelers were the better team,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said at the time. “We didn’t do much of anything right.”

They did plenty of everything right in their two games since then with winning margins greater than they had in 20 of the 21 games during the last streak. That one began with a 38-30, come-from behind win against Tennessee.

The end of it didn’t fire up the Patriots to play any better, Belichick said Monday.

“Every game is independent. The preparation and the game plan and the execution of the game is all pretty much self-contained,” he said. “I’m not saying that you can’t get anything out of a previous game. You correct mistakes and you put emphasis on things that you need to do better.”

After losing to the Steelers, the Patriots went out to a 33-14 lead over the Rams after three quarters with linebacker Mike Vrabel catching one touchdown pass and kicker Adam Vinatieri throwing another on a fake field-goal attempt.

Then they improved to 8-1 – and moved two games ahead of the New York Jets in the AFC East – with an even more dominant game against the Bills, who had won three of their previous four games. The Patriots outgained them by 303 yards, 428-125 and held the ball more than 22 minutes longer, 41:22 to 18:38. Buffalo’s only touchdown came on a punt return.

Vinatieri kicked five field goals, but quarterback Tom Brady saw those as missed opportunities for touchdowns.

“I think everyone is happy with the win,” he said, “but we play a game next Monday night so we have got to figure out how to improve from here.”

They’ll be in Kansas City, which has one of the league’s worst defenses and is 3-6 after losing its last two games. That could mean another big game for Corey Dillon, the AFC’s second leading rusher after gaining 151 yards on 26 carries against Buffalo.

He is 8-0 since joining the Patriots in an offseason trade with Cincinnati, missing only the Pittsburgh game with a thigh injury. Might they be undefeated if he had played?

“Corey doesn’t play defense,” Belichick said.

But he has given the coach a much improved running game and an impressive work ethic.

“You know what you’re going to get from Corey every day. He brings a very consistent effort and performance level to the practice field,” Belichick said. “A coach wants consistency and wants dependability. There really isn’t a higher adjective that you can put as a compliment to a player than a consistent, dependable player.”

Considering the Patriots’ relatively weak schedule, Dillon may go undefeated in his first season with them.

New England plays at home against Baltimore (6-3) after visiting Kansas City then finishes with five games against Cleveland (3-6), Cincinnati (4-5), Miami (1-8), the Jets (6-3) and San Francisco (1-8).

But it’s not easy to play well every week.

“It is tough to achieve,” linebacker Tedy Bruschi said Monday, “but I think the first thing you have to have is good football players. The way we see ourselves in the locker room is we are good football players. We tell the guys, There is a reason you are in this locker room and it is to help us eventually. If you are not playing now, eventually you are going to have to do something.”‘

Like wide receiver Troy Brown, playing defense because of injuries, intercepting a pass and backup linebacker Tully Banta-Cain getting 11/2 sacks, all against the Bills.

So the Patriots should have momentum to extend their two-game winning streak.

Just as they didn’t have momentum after their only loss in their last 24 games.

“We need to be ready to play every week, not just after we lose or after we win,” Belichick said. “You see some teams where their performance is better one week than another. I don’t think it is necessarily related to what happened the previous week.”

AP-ES-11-15-04 1757EST