FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — If the calendar reads December, it must mean everything will start coming up roses for the New England Patriots.

This is the script that the NFL has watched in virtually every season since Tom Brady took over as the Pats’ quarterback way back in 2001. After Sunday’s perfunctory 24-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings, Brady is 59-11 in December games in his career.

All that winning ultimately leads to AFC East titles, playoff byes, home games at Gillette Stadium and the chance to play for championships. That’s the formula, and at this point it’s tried and true. It’s helped the Pats to seven straight AFC championship games and three of the last four Super Bowls.

It all starts with winning in December. At first blush the Pats’ schedule down the stretch didn’t look all that rough. The two toughest tests seemed to be this contest against a talented Vikings team and a trip to Pittsburgh in two weeks. Throw in a visit to Miami, where the Pats always seem distracted (South Beach anyone?) and it’s clear the team has some serious heavy lifting to do before playoff time.

“We just know and we always say that after Thanksgiving, that’s when the football season starts,” said safety Duron Harmon. “Everything is a lot more important. We just try to play the best ball that we can. Like I said, all the games are important right now. You try to take them one at a time but you know every game has importance.”

The first step this month unfolded much easier than planned. The word heading into Sunday was that the Vikings owned a fierce front seven and could put points on the board. Neither fear was realized. Brady neutralized the pass rush in the first half with an assortment of short passes, most into the flats, that kept Minnesota off-balance. He wasn’t sacked a single time and the Vikings were credited with one quarterback hit.

The offense finally opened a bit early in the second half when Brady and Josh Gordon combined on a few big plays. In a snap, a 10-10 game late in the third quarter became a 24-10 advantage. This one really ended when Brown University’s gift to Foxborough, banger James Develin, rammed in from the 2-yard line early in the fourth quarter. After scoring one touchdown in his first five seasons, Touchdown Develin hit paydirt twice Sunday and now has three this season.

Brady threw an interception to keep things interesting with five minutes to play but that suspense didn’t last long. Kirk Cousins lofted a pass to the end zone for Aldrick Robinson that talented rookie corner J.C. Jackson defended well and knocked up in the air. Harmon was conveniently a yard away and secured an interception that sent the crowd of 65,878 heading into the Route 1 traffic snarl.

That fortunate bounce was nothing compared to the gift the Pats received courtesy of their chief competitor in the AFC on Friday. The release of a stunning video showing Kansas City running back Kareem Hunt pushing and kicking a woman in his Cleveland apartment building last February has sent shockwaves across the NFL.

While yet another example of a clueless louse exhibiting criminal behavior with violence toward a woman, Hunt’s subsequent release by the Chiefs could alter the balance of power in the league.

Hunt seems like an irreplaceable piece of the Chiefs’ high-scoring offense. His loss was felt right away as Kansas City (10-2) struggled to put away the lowly Raiders (2-10) on Sunday and remain atop the AFC. They’ll look to adjust the rest of the way against a tough slate that includes games against the Ravens, Chargers and Seahawks.

The Patriots (9-3) sit only one game back and are just waiting for the Chiefs to slip up. The team’s defense kept Cousins in check and has allowed only two touchdowns in the last two weeks. They’ll be tested next week in Miami, where the Dolphins (6-6) have legitimate wild-card playoff hopes. Then comes the big showdown in Pittsburgh against Ben Roethlisberger & Co.

The offense is wanting a bit right now. Rob Gronkowski was invisible (3 catches, 26 yards) again but Brady moved the ball around to nine pass-catchers and kept the Vikings off-balance.

Some of the offense’s miscues are self-inflicted. As Coach Bill Belichick said, “We’re going backwards too many plays. This is two weeks in a row we just have too many penalties. We’ve got to eliminate that. That’s obvious.”

While the offense ran in place for much too long and is still missing that extra something, it isn’t wise to bet against the Patriots over these final four games of the month. This is December after all, the time of the year when the Pats crank things up a few notches while other NFL teams seem to pack it in.

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