Early Monday morning, Jets coach Rex Ryan was asked about New York’s chances of winning the division. He sounded like a beaten man.

“It looks doubtful right now,” Ryan said after the Jets suffered a 37-16 loss to the Patriots at MetLife Stadium. “What am I supposed to say? Maybe I should guarantee that we’re out of it -- the last time I did that, we made the playoffs.”

The division isn’t a done deal, but the Patriots took a huge step toward setting themselves up for another hat and T-shirt game with a thunderous win over New York, giving them sole possession of first place in the AFC East and going one game up on both New York and Buffalo.

At 6-3 and Thanksgiving looming, the Patriots certainly haven’t sealed the deal, but Sunday’s win over the Jets puts New England squarely in the drivers’ seat in the AFC East. New England has a one-game lead on the Jets and Bills, and have swept the season series from New York, which means the Jets will need the Patriots to stumble, while they win most of their games down the stretch if they want to overcome that sort of deficit. Meanwhile, Buffalo has a little more control over its own situation: The Bills still have one game left with both New England and New York -- Buffalo beat New England in the only meeting between the two teams this season, while the Jets upended the Bills in the one game they’ve played.

But considering the fact that the next six games on the Patriots’ schedule are all against teams with sub-.500 records, New England has to feel pretty good about its chances the rest of the way. Among the opponents looming between now and the end of the season include the 0-10 Colts and the 2-7 Dolphins, as well as Philadelphia and Washington, two teams that are 3-6.

“There’s still a lot of football left to be played. Every team is still going to make improvements,” quarterback Tom Brady told WEEI on Monday. “And some teams are just going to continue to ride out the season and they can start thinking about next year.

“We want to be one of those teams that really starts building and getting better every week. I thought last night was a good step in the second half of the year. But obviously, the week starts again today. We’ve got to move on to the next game and start getting prepared for a team that we haven’t played in a few years.”

Their toughest opponent? The 5-4 Bills, who started the season on such a positive note, will head to Foxboro for the regular-season finale on Jan. 1, but they’re losing key players at a rapid clip to injury, and appear to be regressing as the season continues. Buffalo, which has suffered three losses in its last four games, saw center Eric Wood become its’ third regular placed on injured reserve in as many weeks when he tore a ligament in Sunday’s 44-7 loss to Dallas. Defensive tackle Kyle Williams (foot) went on the list last week, while linebacker Shawne Merriman (Achilles tendon) also is out for the year.

This week, the Patriots will prepare for Kansas City. At 4-5, the Chiefs are probably the best of those sub-.500 teams, with wins in recent weeks against the Raiders, and Chargers. Even though Kansas City has struggled the last two weeks with ugly losses to the Dolphins (31-3) and Broncos (17-10), Belichick says this week will be a “test” just as stern as any other the Patriots have faced.

“I think every week is a test, absolutely. Last week was a test. This week is a test,” Belichick said. “No matter what happened last week, whether we won, lost, at home or on the road or in London, it doesn’t matter. Once that game is over we have to put it behind us.

“Now it’s about preparing for Kansas City, what they do, what their schemes are, what their players are, what their tendencies are in certain coaching decision situations that we’ll have to make.”

Like the Bills, the Chiefs are dealing with some injury uncertainty of their own. Quarterback Matt Cassel -- who played so well in New England when Brady went down in 2008 -- reportedly suffered a right hand injury in Sunday’s loss to Denver. There are varying reports as to the severity of the injury, but there remains the very real possibility that Kansas City will be forced to turn to Tyler Palko. According to the Associated Press, quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn told Palko on Monday that he’ll likely get the start against the Patriots.

The 28-year-old journeyman out of Pitt, who has been with New Orleans, Arizona, the UFL and the CFL, has never started a game in the NFL.

“I’m really close with Matt and we’ve been through a lot these last two years,” Palko told reporters on Monday. “You hate to see anybody go down like this, but it’s football, and you just have to be ready.”