New England wouldn't have been 11-5 with anything resembling a difficult schedule. Thy beat 9 poor/average teams and two decent teams (Miami, NYJ). Every other good side they played beat them (Miami, San Diego (and they werent that hot this year), Indianapolis, Jets, Pittsburgh). In the end, it actually came down to that win by the Jets in week 11 that stopped them (pretty sure they lost out to both Baltimore and Miami on vs Conference record).
You win your division, your in. Simple as, unfortunately for the Patriots, there was a better team in the division. If you cant win your division then doesnt matter how good your record is. If there are two better second place teams they are in...i believe thats why they call it the wildcard.
Seattle, Oakland, Arizona, Buffalo....I suppose you do deserve to be in the playoffs after a winning run against such mighty opposition.
Bill Belicheck....better than Vince Lombardi ;)