The Patriots defense heard the hype about the Texans defense. They used it as fuel and stole the show.

"Ain't nobody been talking about our defense all year. We'll see what they've got to say today."

"Everybody was talking about them all week and I think it just turned us up. Like, alright, we want to go out there and show what we can do, you know what I'm saying? But like I said earlier, respect to them because they balled. They get after it. We just wanted to show what we can do and that's what showed tonight."

"I take full responsibility. It's something I'm going to learn from. It's just ball security is everything, especially the way our defense has played all year, and it's something that I've done a pretty good job of up to this point. I'm going to continue to get better in that area. I'm not happy with myself when it comes to that because I'm giving points and opportunities away from our team."

Patriots defenders used preseason praise for the Texans' defense as motivation and delivered a dominant performance in a 28-16 divisional win. New England's defense entered the AFC championship allowing just 9.5 points per postseason game and held Houston to 48 total rushing yards, well under New England's 105 rushing yards. The Patriots forced four first-half interceptions from Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud and generated multiple big plays. Texans players and coaches acknowledged the turnovers, and Stroud accepted responsibility and pledged to improve ball security moving forward.

Read at Boston.com