When the New England Patriots take the field for Sunday’s AFC Divisional Round game against the Houston Texans it will be the 17^th time an NFL playoff game has been held in Foxborough.

The Pats hold a 13-3 all-time record at home in the playoffs but are just 9-6 all-time in the AFC Divisional Round. New England defeated the Denver Broncos, 45-10 in last year’s divisional round game at Gillette Stadium.

If the Patriots defeat the Texans Sunday then they will advance to a round that they have had tremendous success in – the AFC Championship game.

The Pats are 7-1 all-time in AFC Championship games, including a 4-0 record in Foxborough. New England’s lone loss in the AFC Championship round came in the 2006 season on the road in Indianapolis against Peyton Manning and the Colts.

In 2012, New England compiled a 12-4 record and earned the number two seed in the AFC, which is particularly good news for Patriots fans hoping for a good omen heading into the postseason.

The Patriots have advanced to the Super Bowl in three of four seasons as the AFC’s number two seed (1978, 1996, 2001, 2004) and won a world championship twice (2001 and 2004).

And as long as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are in New England the expectation remains the same year-after-year: Win a Super Bowl.

"[Continuity between coach and quarterback] It’s critical," Patriots president Jonathan Kraft recently told Adam Jones of The Adam Jones Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub. "[With] football, there’s so many coaches and players. Staffs up to 20 coaches and 53 men on the active roster, the eight-man practice squad, guys on IR and everybody is contributing in their own way ... but clearly having consistency at the head coach position and the quarterback position are two very important elements to having the opportunity to win consistently. I think if you don’t have consistency in those positions it’s very hard to win consistently. Maybe that’s an obvious statement but we’re fortunate."

It's that consistency from Belichick and Brady that have New England once again positioned to make a deep playoff run but the Patriot Way is not to look so far ahead that you lose sight of the immediate goal.

This week it is beating the Houston Texans to advance to the franchise's ninth AFC Championship game.

"We set out each year to win our division," Jonathan Kraft said. "That’s our first goal and we were able to do that this year. The next goal we set our sights on besides earning a bye, which we were fortunate enough to do this year too is to try and go on and win the championship and represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. That’s the focus of the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we will be successful and do that."

The Lombardi Trophy hasn’t returned home to Foxborough since the 2004-05 season but the Pats have advanced to the Super Bowl five teams in the Belichick-Brady era. The team begins its quest for a fourth Lombardi Trophy Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

In advance of New England’s 40^th playoff game in the franchise’s 53-year history on Sunday (kick-off 4:30 p.m.), we go inside the numbers of the Patriots in the postseason:

By the Numbers: Patriots in the Playoffs

1 - The number of Super Bowl victories Bill Belichick needs to tie Chuck Noll for the most Super Bowl wins by any head coach in NFL history; Number of playoff victories QB Tom Brady (16) needs to break a tie with Joe Montana (16) for the most playoff wins by a starting quarterback in NFL history.

3 – Patriots’ number of Super Bowl championships; The Patriots are one of three teams to make the playoffs in four consecutive seasons (2009-12). The only other teams to accomplish the feat are the Baltimore Ravens and the Green Bay Packers.

6 – Number of AFC championships Patriots have won under Robert Kraft. The Patriots owner is the first NFL owner to bring his team to six Super Bowls and his six conference championships are the most of any NFL owner in the Super Bowl Era (since 1966). Seven NFL owners brought their teams to five Super Bowls, but Kraft is the first NFL owner to lead his team to six Super Bowl appearances; Tom Brady tied an NFL single-game playoff record with six touchdown passes against Denver in 2011. Daryle Lamonica of Oakland in 1969 and Steve Young of San Francisco in the 1994 Super Bowl also had six touchdown passes.

7 – Patriots’ number of Super Bowl appearances

12 – Patriots have won 12 AFC East title under owner Robert Kraft.

14 – The Patriots have earned 14 playoff berths in Robert Kraft’s 19 years as the team’s owner; The Patriots have won 14 playoff games in the decade from 2000-09, tying the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys for the most playoff victories by any NFL team in either the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s or 2000s. Pittsburgh and Dallas both won 14 playoff contests between 1970 and 1979, while New England won 14 postseason games from 2000-09.

17 - The number of career playoff games Bill Belichick has won, a total that is tied for third-highest by a head coach in NFL history with Joe Gibbs. Belichick needs three wins to tie Tom Landry for the most wins in the playoffs in NFL history.

20 - New England has qualified for the playoffs 20 times in its 53-year history.

22 - The number of career playoff games Tom Brady has played in a New England uniform. Brady is tied with Tedy Bruschi for the most playoff games for the Patriots.

23 – Patriots’ number of all-time playoffs wins.

28 - In 22 playoff games since 2000, the Patriots have forced 28 interceptions, the second most of any team coming into this postseason. The Baltimore Ravens are first with 34 postseason interceptions since 2000. New England’s 28 postseason interceptions since 2000 have resulted in five touchdowns.

38 - The number of touchdowns Tom Brady has thrown in 22-career playoff games, a number that ranks third in NFL history. Joe Montana ranks first with 45 and Brett Favre ranks second with 44.

50 - The longest field goal in the playoffs made by Stephen Gostkowski on Jan. 14, 2007 at San Diego, which ranks first in Patriots playoff history, surpassing Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard kicks in 2002 and 2005.

92.9 - The completion percentage Tom Brady (26-for-28) recorded against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Divisional game in 2007, an NFL record for a single postseason game with a minimum of 15 completions.

108.4 - The quarterback rating of Tom Brady in the first half of the five Super Bowls in which he has played in. Brady has thrown for 547 yards, five touchdowns, and has completed 69 percent of his passes without throwing an interception during the first half of Super Bowls.

5,285 - The number of passing yards Tom Brady has amassed in 22 career playoff games, a number that ranks fourth in NFL history. Only Brett Favre (5,855), Joe Montana (5,772) and Peyton Manning (5,389) have thrown for more yards.

.589 - The Patriots’ postseason winning percentage. New England is 23-16 in the playoffs, the fourth best winning percentage in NFL history. That figure trails only Green Bay (29-17, .630), Pittsburgh (33-21, .611) and San Francisco (26-18, .591).

.708 - Belichick’s playoff winning percentage (17-7) is tied with Joe Gibbs’ for the fourth-highest playoff winning percentage among NFL head

coaches, trailing only Vince Lombardi (9-1, .900), Tom Flores (8-3, .727) and Bill Walsh (10-4, .714).

.727 - The winning percentage for Tom Brady in the postseason, the second-best by a starting quarterback (minimum of 15 starts) in postseason history. Terry Bradshaw holds the current record with a percentage of .737.

.813 - The Patriots’ home playoff winning percentage. New England has won 13 of 16 home playoff games, making them the second winningest franchise at home in NFL history behind Green Bay (14 of 17, .823).

PATRIOTS PLAYOFF RESULTS

Year How Qualified Seed Record Result

• 2012 Division Champions 2 ??? ??????????????
• 2011 Division Champions 1 2-1 AFC Champions
• 2010 Division Champions 1 0-1 AFC Divisional
• 2009 Division Champions 3 0-1 Wild Card Round
• 2007 Division Champions 1 2-1 AFC Champions
• 2006 Division Champions 4 2-1 AFC Finalist
• 2005 Division Champions 4 1-1 AFC Divisional
• 2004 Division Champions 2 3-0 SB Champions
• 2003 Division Champions 1 3-0 SB Champions
• 2001 Division Champions 2 3-0 SB Champions
• 1998 Wild Card 6 0-1 Wild Card Round
• 1997 Division Champions 3 1-1 AFC Divisional
• 1996 Division Champions 2 2-1 AFC Champions
• 1994 Wild Card 5 0-1 Wild Card Round
• 1986 Division Champions 3 0-1 AFC Divisional
• 1985 Wild Card 5 3-1 AFC Champions
• 1982* 16-Team Format 7 0-1 First Round
• 1978 Division Champions 2 0-1 AFC Divisional
• 1976 Wild Card 4 0-1 AFC Divisional
• 1963 Division Champions -- 1-1 AFL Finalists

PATRIOTS AT HOME IN THE PLAYOFFS (13-3)

(Date Round Opponent W/L Score)

• 01/22/12 AFC Championship Baltimore W 23-20
• 01/14/12 AFC Divisional Denver W 45-10
• 01/16/11 AFC Divisional New York Jets L 21-28
• 01/10/10 AFC Wild Card Baltimore L 14-33
• 01/20/08 AFC Championship San Diego W 21-12
• 01/12/08 AFC Divisional Jacksonville W 31-20
• 01/07/07 AFC Wild Card New York Jets W 37-16
• 01/07/06 AFC Wild Card Jacksonville W 28-3
• 01/16/05 AFC Divisional Indianapolis W 20-3
• 01/18/04 AFC Championship Indianapolis W 24-14
• 01/10/04 AFC Divisional Tennessee W 17-14
• 01/19/02 AFC Divisional Oakland W 16-13 OT
• 12/28/97 AFC Wild Card Miami W 17-3
• 01/12/97 AFC Championship Jacksonville W 20-6
• 01/05/97 AFC Divisional Pittsburgh W 28-3
• 12/31/78 AFC Divisional Houston L 14-31

PATRIOTS DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF RESULTS (9-6)

(Date Round Opponent W/L Score)

• 01/14/12 AFC Divisional Denver Broncos W 45-10
• 01/16/11 AFC Divisional New York Jets L 21-28
• 01/12/08 AFC Divisional Jacksonville W 31-20
• 01/14/07 AFC Divisional at San Diego W 24-21
• 01/14/06 AFC Divisional at Denver L 13-27
• 01/16/05 AFC Divisional Indianapolis W 20-3
• 01/10/04 AFC Divisional Tennessee W 17-14
• 01/19/02 AFC Divisional Oakland W (ot)16-13
• 01/03/98 AFC Divisional at Pittsburgh L 6-7
• 01/05/97 AFC Divisional Pittsburgh W 28-3
• 01/04/87 AFC Divisional at Denver L 17-22
• 01/05/86 AFC Divisional at LA Raiders W 27-20
• 12/31/78 AFC Divisional Houston L 14-31
• 12/18/76 AFC Divisional at Oakland L 21-24
• 12/28/63 AFL Divisional at Buffalo W 26-8 

PATRIOTS PLAYOFF RECORD BY ROUND

• First Round* ............................... 0-1
• Wild Card Round ......................... 4-3
• Divisional Round .......................... 9-6
• AFC Championship ....................... 7-1
• AFL Championship ....................... 0-1
• Super Bowl ................................. 3-4
• Total ..................................... 23-16

2012 Regular Season New England

• Record 12-4
• Divisional Standings 1st
• Total Yards Gained 6,846
• Total Offense (Rank) 427.9 (1)
• Rush Offense 136.5 (7)
• Pass Offense 291.4 (4)
• Points Per Game 34.8 (1)
• Total Yards Allowed 5,972
• Total Defense 373.3 (25)
• Rush Defense 101.9 (9)
• Pass Defense 271.4 (29)
• Points Allowed/Game 20.7 (9t)
• Possession Avg. 30:41
• Sacks Allowed/Yards Lost 27/182
• Sacks Made/Yards 37/213
• Passing TD/Int (off.) 34/8
• Passing TD/Int (def.) 27/20
• Total Touchdowns 67
• Penalties Against/Yards 97/840
• Punts/Avg. 61/42.4
• Field Goals Made/Att. 29/35
• Takeaway/Giveaway Ratio +25 (1)