FOXBORO, Mass. – With less than a minute left in their NFL record 19th straight victory Sunday, the New England Patriots finally acknowledged the streak by dousing coach Bill Belichick.

“To lead a team to 19 victories in a row is something to be proud of,” said safety Rodney Harrison, who did the pouring along with defensive lineman Richard Seymour. “He’s the captain of the ship and we wanted to let him know we feel grateful to him.”

That was one of the few indications the Patriots had done anything special.

Yes, from Belichick on down they all acknowledged the streak and even celebrated a bit. Then they went back to their standard “We play them one at a time” routine, adding to the litany: “We just want to get ready for Seattle.”

Cliche or not, playing them one at a time is what put the Patriots past five other teams to a spot by themselves in the record book.

In this era of parity, almost everyone suffers a letdown at one point or another and lose to teams they shouldn’t. But when the Patriots play badly, they still win.

That’s what they did in Sunday’s 24-10 victory over winless and offenseless (and offensive) Miami, the game was as ugly as they come. But the Patriots don’t lose, in part because they won’t allow it to happen.

On Sunday, they played with only two experienced receivers, David Givens and David Patten. Deion Branch and Troy Brown are hurt and Bethel Johnson was inactive for reasons Belichick would not elaborate on. That left Kevin Kasper, signed on Wednesday, as the third wide receiver and rookie P.K. Sam as the fourth.

But it didn’t matter, in part because Miami is so bad on offense. New England was never threatened.

On the game’s first possession, for example, Tom Brady tried to force a ball to Kasper, with whom he had practiced for less than a week. Patrick Surtain intercepted on the Patriots 47.

No problem.

Leonard Henry, who until this year spent two seasons on the roster without once being active for a game, ran twice into the line for a total of 1 yard. On third down, Jay Fiedler threw an incomplete pass and the Dolphins punted into the end zone.

When Brady threw a 1-yard TD pass to Daniel Graham to make it 7-0 just past the midway point of the first period, the game could have been declared over. Yes, Miami did get 10 points, but guaranteed it wouldn’t have gotten them if the Patriots hadn’t scored more. New England does what is necessary, and if a shutout was necessary Sunday, it would have had a shutout.

Next week Seattle will be here. The Seahawks, on whom the Patriots already were focused after the game, clearly are one of the four teams in a class above the rest of the NFL – with Philadelphia, Indianapolis and, of course, New England. Their coach, Mike Holmgren, was an assistant on one of the five other teams that won 18 straight, the 1989-90 49ers, and was head coach of the Green Bay team that beat New England in the 1997 Super Bowl.

Believe it, every member of the Patriots will be prepared – from Harrison, who played on a 1-15 team in San Diego in 2000, to rookie defensive tackle, Vince Wilfork, who played in college at Miami.

“I’m used to this,” Wilfork said. “I don’t know how long our longest winning streak was in college, but I know we only lost two games the whole time I was there.

“Of course this isn’t like college,” he added, making sure no one thought he wasn’t buying into the party line. “You play a great team every week in the NFL.”