FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

Exactly one month ago, the Houston Texans brought the AFC’s best record to Gillette Stadium for a much-hyped “Monday Night Football” game with the Patriots, and left a few hours later with a convincing, humbling 42-14 defeat.

Outplayed and outcoached Dec. 10, the Texans responded to the loss by dropping two of their next three games, a lateseason swoon that caused them to fall out of the top playoff seed and into wildcard weekend. Saturday’s 19- 13 win over Cincinnati means the Texans will head to Foxborough a second time this season, for a divisionalround playoff game against the Patriots Sunday at 4:30 p.m.

Naturally, fans and analysts have been quick to recall the teams’ first meeting, looking for signs that the rematch either will be another lopsided win by the Patriots, something closer, or the ultimate reversal-of-fortune outcome for the Texans.

Talk to the participants this week, though, and a single theme emerges: The teams may have played in December, but that game — and its result — mean nothing now.

“I think all the previous games are pretty meaningless. I think it’s a bunch of garbage,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “The game comes down to teams, the way we match up this weekend, on Sunday. It doesn’t have anything to do with some game that was played this season, last season, or some other time. It doesn’t matter. It’s not this game.”

Added defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, “I don’t think anything from that game is going to play a huge factor. I think it will give them more momentum or give them more of an edge, that they will want to come back up here and face us and try to beat us in Foxborough.”

Playoff rematches are nothing new, especially for the Patriots, who will be making their 19th postseason appearance since the AFL/NFL merger of 1970. In the vast majority of those — 18 of the team’s 19 trips since 1976 — the Patriots faced at least one team in the playoffs that they played in the regular season. It would be much easier to list the only time in which the Patriots did not encounter a playoff rematch. That came in 1998, when they lost to the Jaguars in a wild-card game, 25-10.

Strong playoff run

With Belichick as coach, the Patriots have made the playoffs in 10 of the past 12 seasons. There have been 14 rematch opponents in those 10 playoff appearances; the Texans will be No. 15.

Belichick’s Patriots are 8-6 in postseason rematches. Included among those eight wins is the 20-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, which atoned for a 24-17 loss to the Rams less than three months earlier.

The rematch numbers haven’t been as kind recently, however. The last five times they faced an opponent in the playoffs that they saw in the regular season, the Patriots are 1-4. The lone win? Last season’s 45-10 rout of the Broncos, four weeks after a similar win (41-23) in Denver.

Two of the four losses have come to the Giants in the Super Bowl — last season and five seasons ago. The other two losses were at Gillette Stadium: 33-14 to the Ravens on Jan. 10, 2010, and 28-21 to the Jets on Jan. 16, 2011. The Patriots owned regular-season wins against both the Ravens and the Jets before falling in the playoffs.

The Texans, then, are hoping history repeats itself. Even though they were dominated by the Patriots last month, they’ll study the game film closely, searching for clues.

“You can learn a lot. You look at formations, tendencies, personnel, everything,” defensive lineman J.J. Watt said. “You look at the whole big picture, you look at small things, you look at individual players. You look at just about everything and then you try to find ways to use it.”

That’s the job for Texans coach Gary Kubiak and his staff. When Kubiak pops in the tape from Dec. 10, there’s not much to like.

“I don’t know how much good we can take out of that one. It was obviously not very good from our standpoint and excellent on their behalf,” Kubiak said of a game the Patriots led, 28-0, early in the third quarter. “You’re making a huge mistake if you start saying, ’If we had done this, if we had done that, we would have been fine.’ We weren’t fine. We got our tails kicked. They were very, very explosive.”

They certainly were, scoring 42 points and piling up 419 yards. But can the Patriots do it to the Texans again? In their four playoff rematch losses over the past five seasons — twice to the Giants, once to the Ravens and Jets — the Patriots averaged 16.5 points and 298 yards per game. In the regular-season wins against those teams, the Patriots averaged 32.5 points and 388 yards.

Adjustments are being made by the opponents the second time around, obviously. The Patriots are expecting more of the same from the Texans, and planning a few tweaks of their own.

“I’m sure there are things that will be different,” said Tom Brady. “There always are. I don’t think any game ever goes as planned.

“I think there is always a part of seeing how they’re playing you, being able to adjust, and who can make the adjustments? Who can get those on the field and execute under pressure? That’s the team that’s going to win.”

If the Patriots win Sunday, it won’t be the last time they face a team they’ve already played this year. The AFC Championship game would bring either Denver (31-21 losers at Gillette Oct. 7) or Baltimore (31-30 winners on Sept. 23). Get to the Super Bowl and the Patriots could face San Francisco or Seattle, two teams that have knocked them off this season.

First things first. Sunday means Patriots-Texans II. The sequel has a whole lot more at stake.

Texans at Pats

By The Associated Press
HOUSTON (13-4) At NEW ENGLAND (12-4)
Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET, CBS
OPENING LINE — Patriots by 9 1/2
RECORD VS. SPREAD — Houston 10-7;
New England 9-7
SERIES RECORD — Patriots lead 3-1
AP PRO32 RANKING — Texans No. 8;
Patriots No. 2
LAST MEETING — Patriots beat Texans 42-
14, Dec. 10, 2012
LAST WEEK — Texans beat Bengals 19-13;
Patriots had bye.
TEXANS OFFENSE — OVERALL (7), RUSH
(8), PASS (11)
TEXANS DEFENSE — OVERALL (7), RUSH
(7), PASS (16)
PATRIOTS OFFENSE — OVERALL (1),
RUSH (7), PASS (4)
PATRIOTS DEFENSE — OVERALL (25),
RUSH (9), PASS (29)
STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES — Teams
meet for first time in playoffs after four regular season games since Texans entered
NFL in 2002. … Patriots are AFC East
champs and earned No. 2 seed by beating
Miami 28-0 in regular-season finale after
AFC South champion Texans lost to Indianapolis 28-16, dropping Houston to No. 3
seed and costing it a bye. …Texans and
Patriots allowed same number of points,
20.7 per game. Patriots led NFL in scoring
with 34.8 average, Texans eighth with 26. …
Houston is in playoffs second straight season after missing them in first nine. … Texans lost three of last four regular-season
games, starting against Patriots when Tom
Brady threw four touchdown passes. They
barely edged Bengals despite an advantage
of 420 to 198 yards and a time of possession of 38:49 compared to 21:11. … QB
Matt Schaub threw for more than 4,000
yards for third time in four seasons. In last
five games, starting with loss to New England, he’s thrown one touchdown pass and
four interceptions … DE J.J. Watt led NFL
with club-record 20 1-2 sacks and is only
player with at least 15 sacks and 15 passes
defensed in same season. … Brady needs
one win to break tie with Joe Montana for
most victories in postseason by a quarterback. It would be Brady’s 17th. … Brady is
6-6 in last 12 playoff games after starting
10-0 … Patriots’ four losses were by total
margin of 11 points. … TEs Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, both sidelined for
extended stretches, expected to play together for just sixth time this season.
Gronkowski has 55 catches in 11 games,
Hernandez 51 in 10 with two touchdown
catches in win over Texans. … WR Wes
Welker tied for second in NFL with 118
catches, leads league over past six seasons
with 672. … RB Stevan Ridley had careerhigh 1,263 yards rushing in second season,
seventh in league and one spot behind Foster’s 1,424. Ridley’s 84 first downs second
to Foster’s 88 in AFC. … Patriots led NFL
with plus-25 turnover differential, Texans
seventh in NFL and second in AFC with
plus-12. … DT Vince Wilfork and DE Rob
Ninkovich tied for second in NFL with four
fumble recoveries. … DB Devin McCourty
tied for seventh in league with five interceptions. … Patriots DE Chandler Jones tied
with Texans LB Whitney Mercilus for first
among AFC rookies with six sacks.