FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Robert Kraft was making his way out of Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon when someone stopped him for an impromptu interview about his team. The New England Patriots owner politely declined, but only because it would have violated organizational protocol that calls for going through the proper channels for public relations.

"Sorry," Kraft said. "But this isn't right. If you speak to ..."

Did I mention that he's the owner?

Patriots defensive end Richard Seymour says he's reminded of the team motto every day when he walks into the Patriots' locker room. Three words: Do your job. If people perform the duties for which they are paid, then everybody wins. And the Patriots have won more often in a six-year stretch than any team in NFL history.

"I can't play running back or receiver or nose tackle," Seymour said. "I can only play defensive end and defensive tackle. When I'm out there, I just try to take care of my responsibility. That's the mind-set of this team. We have a lot of veteran guys on this team who buy into the motto and put the team first."

It works pretty well, wouldn't you say? The Patriots' success starts at the top and trickles all the way down to the people who clean the parking lot. Everybody understands his role in the organization and follows his marching orders, which explains how they have been greater than the sum of their parts for years.

The Patriots dropped a 20-10 thumping on the Bills on Sunday and made it look easy. But were the Pats better? You would be hard-pressed to convince me that they had superior players. If anything, it was the other way around. The Pats are no longer the dominant team in the AFC East, but there they were Sunday, at the top.

You thought the Bills had injury problems? The Pats were so banged up that they were longing for Sammy Morris, who couldn't carry the groceries when he was in Buffalo. New England tapped into its depth chart for BenJarvus Green-Ellis, which sounds like a Wall Street law firm rather than an NFL running back.

Green-Ellis was an undrafted rookie free agent from Mississippi who was waived during training camp and opened the season on the practice squad, making him their fifth-best running back. G-E plugged away for 105 yards on 26 carries and scored a touchdown in his fourth straight game, finishing off a 19-play drive in the fourth quarter.

"I don't think about anything too much," Green-Ellis said. "I just go out every day and work hard. Whatever you're asked to do, you go out and do it."

Quarterback Matt Cassel was asked in the opener to replace Tom Brady, the best player of his time and possibly the best of all time. Cassel has been a starter for eight games and looked very much like Brady on Sunday. He was methodical. He was intelligent. He was accurate. He was mistake-free. And he was winning.

Cassel completed 23 of 34 passes for 234 yards, had no interceptions and ran for a touchdown, which is to say he was more productive in one game against the Bills than he was in four years at USC. Cassel was 20 of 33 for 192 yards in his career while mopping up for Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart with the Trojans. The Pats saw enough to grab him in the seventh round in 2005 and groom him into an NFL quarterback.

It's remarkable when you think about how many players they have shuffled through the system over the years, but it should no longer be a surprise. The league is designed to run in cycles in which teams have their kicks at the Super Bowl before the rules force them to disassemble their rosters and start over again.

Parity forgot about the Patriots.

Every year during training camp, you think the league will eventually catch up to the Pats and put them back in their place. The salary cap is bound to jump up and bite them. Or age will become a factor. Or injuries will get in the way. Their dominance is bound to end at some point.

Isn't it?

The Pats almost seemed human given all they've been forced to endure through the first nine weeks. But they keep rolling along, like always, filling holes with role players and watching them produce the same results.

Sunday marked their 10th straight victory over the Bills. The Pats have changed nearly 85 percent of their roster since the season opener in 2003, the last time the Bills beat them. Only six starters remain from that 31-0 rout, including Brady and injured safety Rodney Harrison. Their success is hardly a coincidence.

Bill Belichick is the genius, or in these parts The Genius. He's a terrific coach, but he's not running the team by himself. Personnel director Scott Pioli has been masterful over the years in finding the right players who function the Belichick way. It all starts with Kraft, who hired the right people and gave them a simple order:

Do your job.