Patriots 34, Texans 16: Game notes

FOXBORO -- Notes from the Patriots' 34-16 Divisional Round playoff victory over the Texans, courtesy of the Pats' P.R. department:

PATRIOTS 34, TEXANS 16

• Curran: Patriots move on, but it's not all smiles in Foxboro
• Lewis harps on fumbles after otherwise historic night: 'My worst game ever'
• Tom E. Curran's Best and Worst
• Wilfork: I think I've played my last NFL game
• Bennett on injury scare: 'I watch a lot of House, but I'm not a doctor'
• Dan Koppen: Every time Patriots get questioned, they step up
• Ray Lewis and Earl Thomas take Twitter jabs at Tom Brady

TEAM NOTES
Sweet Six: The Patriots advanced to their sixth straight AFC Championship Game, setting an NFL record for consecutive conference championship appearances. They had been tied with the 1973-77 Raiders at five.

Lucky Thirteen? This will be the Patriots' 13th appearance in the conference championship game. They are 8-4 in their previous 12 games, including 5-1 in Foxboro and 4-1 at Gillette Stadium.

Top Five: The Patriots have now won 30 postseason games, one of only five teams in NFL history to do so. The others are the Steelers (35), Cowboys (34), Packers (33) and 49ers (30).

Record Advancement: The Patriots have now won at least one postseason game in six consecutive seasons, tying the 1991-96 Cowboys for most consecutive years advancing in the playoffs.

Home cooking: The Patriots are now 19-4 (.826) in home playoff games, the second-best home playoff record in NFL history among teams that have played at least 10 home playoffs. (Seattle is first at 12-2, .857.) The Pats are 15-3 in playoff games at Gillette Stadium.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Passing Landry: Bill Belichick will coach his 11th conference championship game next week, most in NFL history. He had been tied with legendary Cowboys coach Tom Landry at 10.

Approaching Landry . . . and Shula: Landry and ex-Colts/Dolphins coach Don Shula share the NFL record for most postseason games coaches at 36. Belichick now has coached in 34, and will tie them if the Patriots advance to the Super Bowl.

He's Number One: Brady will play in his 11th conference championship next week, most in NFL history. He had been tied with ex-Raiders Gene Upshaw and George Blanda at 10.

He's Tied At Number One: Brady played in his 13th Divisional Round playoff game, tying Jerry Rice for the NFL record for most appearances in the Divisional Round.

Catching History: With eight catches (for 137 yards), Julian Edelman (76) passed Wes Welker (69) to become the Patriots' all-time leader in playoff receptions. He also moved into second on the Patriots list with 819 receiving yards in the postseason, 33 yards behind the all-time leader Deion Branch (852).

Moving up: Edelman passed Art Monk (69), Anquan Boldin (70), Fred Biletnikoff (70) and Cliff Branch (73) to move into a tie for seventh place with Thurman Thomas on the all-time postseason reception list in NFL history.

Third time's the charm: Edelman had his third 100-yard postseason game.

Making his points: Stephen Gostkowski's 10 points in Saturday night's game gives him 142 career postseason points, good for fourth place on the all-time NFL list. He had been tied with Rice at 132.

A first: As noted elsewhere, Dion Lewis is the first player in NFL postseason history to have a rushing TD, receiving TD and kickoff return for a touchdown in a single game.

Another first: Lewis became the first player in Patriots history to return a kickoff for a touchdown in a postseason game.