The New England Patriots will spend the week in Foxborough preparing for Sunday’s playoff game against the Houston Texans with short memories.

Bill Belichick and his coaching staff have gathered every ounce of relevance from the Patriots’ 42-14 win over Houston on Dec. 10 and are moving on to their game plan for this weekend’s AFC divisional round game at Gillette Stadium.

“We just have to go back and make sure that we’re well prepared for the things [the Texans] do,” Belichick said Monday.

Part of that preparation will be forgetting about that Dec. 10 meeting with the Texans at Gillette Stadium.

“There were several things in that [Dec. 10] game [against the Texans] that went our way but I don’t think that’s really that significant at this point,” Belichick said. … “I don’t think you can overanalyze that game. We’re playing a team – we have our team, they have their team and it’s a big picture thing. Every game comes down to some specific plays and matchups but you know you never know that’s how it’s going to go at the beginning. You just have to wait and see how it unfolds. We’re just going to focus on our preparation and what we do and what they’ve shown that they’ve done and try to be ready for it all.”

With 36 players currently on the roster from last season’s Super Bowl team, the Patriots have plenty of postseason experience heading into Sunday’s game against a Houston Texans team that will be playing in just its fourth playoff game in franchise history.

How much of a factor will that be in this game? Not a whole lot, according to Belichick.

“I think [experience] has some [impact] but I don’t think it is overriding by any means,” Belichick said. “You can find plenty of examples of teams and players with limited experience that have done very well and plenty of those same examples where it hasn’t gone so well. But I think like anything else, if you’ve been through it once you have a little more knowledge and a little more confidence and understanding of what’s going to happen than if you’ve never been through it before. I think there is some advantage to it but I think the advantage goes to the team that plays well, that executes well, makes good decisions. I think that’s more of an advantage than experience or no experience.”

With Players off Monday, Belichick said he and his coaches spent the day putting their game plan together before players return to Foxborough Tuesday.