FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2014 Short nights and short offseasons.
It\u2019s the Patriot way.
New England has advanced to the AFC championship game for a record sixth year in a row and the 11th time in 16 seasons. With one more win, the Patriots (15-2) would play in their seventh Super Bowl since 2001.
But to find out who was still in their way, they had to wait until Sunday\u2019s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers. That\u2019s also something they\u2019ve grown accustomed to in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era.
\u201cIt was a long night \u2014 or a short night, however you want to look at it,\u201d Belichick told reporters on Sunday, about 13 hours after beating the Houston Texans 34-16.
\u201cWe have people on our staff that work on our next opponent, just like we always do. This one\u2019s a little tougher because we\u2019re working on two teams instead of one, but they\u2019ve just worked harder and gotten it done.\u201d
Brady completed 18 of 38 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns in the divisional-round victory over Houston, but he also threw two interceptions \u2013 as many as he had all season.
Dion Lewis had three touchdowns \u2013 one running, one on a pass reception and a 98-yard kickoff return \u2013 but fumbled another return and helped the Texans stay in the game.
So the Patriots don\u2019t have to look too far to find things to work on this week.
\u201cThere are some things I could do a lot better on, protect the ball. I put my team in jeopardy,\u201d said Lewis, who is the first player in the Super Bowl era to score on a run, catch and kickoff. \u201cWe have a lot of work to do. We made a lot of mistakes. I\u2019m glad we got a win, but in order to advance next week, we\u2019ve got to play a lot better.\u201d
Brady was also focusing on improving.
\u201cI think we\u2019ve just got to learn from it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a lot of things, and then when you add our poor execution on top of that, then you add our turnovers on top of that, it doesn\u2019t feel great because we worked pretty hard to play a lot better than we played.
\u201cI give them a lot of credit, but we\u2019re going to have to play better on offense. We expect to go out and have a good week and try to fix the things that we saw tonight, and then try to play better next weekend.\u201d
Brady, 39, overcame his four-game \u201cDeflategate\u201d suspension to propel himself into the Most Valuable Player discussion while throwing for 28 touchdowns in the regular season and just two interceptions \u2013 the best ratio in NFL history. He has not missed the playoffs in a healthy season since 2002, and his 11 appearances in the conference title game is a record for any player.
Saturday\u2019s win gave Belichick the record for coaching appearances in a conference championship, his 11th, breaking a tie with Dallas\u2019 Tom Landry.
\u201cIt\u2019s really a testament to this organization,\u201d said New England defensive back Duron Harmon, who had one of three interceptions of Houston\u2019s Brock Osweiler.
\u201cThe work we continue to put in, how hard the coaches continue to push us. It\u2019s just a testament, it\u2019s very rarely done, and I\u2019m just excited to be a part of something like this because there\u2019s not too many places that win like this.\u201d
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