FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots worked it out so they could play Jacksonville in the first round of the NFL playoffs.

What the defending Super Bowl champions couldn’t do this year is get the week off.

For the first time in their developing dynasty, the Patriots (10-6) will be playing on wild-card weekend, on Saturday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4). That means they’ll have to win three games just to get back to the Super Bowl and four if they’re going to claim their fourth NFL title in five years.

“Obviously, you’d always want to have the bye. That’s what you play for,” linebacker Mike Vrabel said after the Patriots pooch-punted their regular-season finale to the Miami Dolphins, 28-26. “We didn’t get that. We won our division. It would have been good to end up on a positive note. All that aside, we still have a great opportunity in front of us.”

The AFC East champions won Super Bowls in 2002, 2004 and 2005 after winning the division and earning a bye through the first round of the playoffs; they missed the playoffs after the ’02 season.

“We’ve got the same amount of time that Jacksonville has to prepare for the game, so we’re on a level field there. We just have to do a better job,” coach Bill Belichick said Monday. “You’ve got to play your best football in January. It’s that time of year.”

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With a playoff berth locked up but no chance for the bye, New England did its best to rest up in the regular-season finale.

Running back Corey Dillon and linebacker Tedy Bruschi were inactive. Two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady played just one quarter — and Belichick didn’t even call upon Doug Flutie to back him up. Instead, third-stringer Matt Cassel got the most snaps he’s seen in a game since high school.

Flutie was relegated to comic relief, drop-kicking an extra point while the game was still competitive. Cassel then led New England to the potential game-tying touchdown with no time left on the clock before overthrowing a pass on the 2-point conversion.

That left the Patriots, who had already clinched the AFC East title, with the No. 4 seed in the conference; Jacksonville was the fifth seed as the higher wild-card team. The Cincinnati Bengals, who would have played the Jaguars if New England had won, also offered a check swing in their finale and lost 37-3 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“We don’t get the type of credit we deserve,” Jags running back Fred Taylor said. “Everybody wanted us. That makes us feel special, right? When you’re wanted, that makes you feel special.”

Although Jacksonville, which hadn’t made the playoffs since 1999, won eight of its last nine games, all eight victories were against teams with losing records. Quarterback Byron Leftwich is expected to return after missing five games with a broken left ankle.

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“The only thing I know is that they’re a great team. We wouldn’t be playing them if they weren’t a good team,” Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork said. “Nobody’s going to bow down to us, and we’re not going to bow down to anybody. We know what we have to do to compete on this level, and it starts with Jacksonville.”

Saturday night’s weather forecast calls for temperatures below freezing, making the environment even more unfriendly to the Floridians. That’s why the Jags looked like a better matchup for the Patriots than Pittsburgh, which won its last four games to grab the AFC’s final playoff berth.

But even though it looked like an exhibition game on Sunday, the Patriots denied they gave less than a full effort.

“It’s pretty ridiculous,” Belichick said. “I don’t know (why someone would say that). Talk to whoever thinks that. ... Go talk to the teams that have lost to them and see what they have to say.”