Not to say that Foster carries the entire load for the Houston offense, but he has more on his shoulders than anyone else. “It starts with their running game, it starts with Foster,” said Patriots tackle Vince Wilfork, whose defensive colleagues know they have to stop him on Sunday afternoon to advance to the AFC Championship game. “The more touches that he gets, in the passing game or on the ground, the better that team is.”

The Patriots knew that in December when they held Foster to 46 yards on 15 carries en route to a 42-14 beatdown that brought the Texans to earth. That was then, says Foster, which is why he didn’t waste much time checking out the video evidence.

“I don’t know how much I’m going to look at that, honestly,” he said this week. “They’re a new team, we’re a new team. Any time you play a team twice in a season you’ve got different guys and different schemes. You have to attack it differently. It’s a different mentality, different things are at stake. So I’ll glance at it, but I’m not going to sit there and burn a candle watching that film.”

The regular season has nothing to do with the playoffs, which is when Foster turns into a yardage machine. He ran for 140 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries in last week’s 19-13 triumph over the Bengals, making him the first back in history to submit 100-yard efforts in his first three postseason games.

“Any time you reach any milestone and touch any part of history in this league it’s a big deal,” said Foster. “It means a lot, but it’s not just me. It’s this team, my offensive line, the receivers making key blocks, the tight ends, and the quarterback making plays and reading checks. It’s always a culmination of your team, so it’s a nice feeling.”

Foster, who is only in his fourth season, may or may not be Hall of Fame material (“I’m not done yet”) but he’s off to an impressive start. He already ranks fourth behind Jim Brown, Billy Sims, and Barry Sanders for scrimmage yards per game (118.7), chalking up 1,424 on the ground and 217 through the air this season with 17 touchdowns.

“[It’s] not only the yards that he gains but how the running game controls the game for them, how it sets up their play-action passes, how it puts them in third-and-short situations,” assessed Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who calls Foster a “very dangerous player.”

“There’s no question that he’s the key guy for Houston and their offense, but his production also complements the other players as well and the other parts of the game. We’re definitely going to have to do a good job on him.”

Talent was there

Nobody saw Foster as a mainspring when he went undrafted out of Tennessee after an undistinguished senior season. He’d been considered second-round material after rumbling for nearly 1,200 yards and a dozen touchdowns as a junior, but Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer talked Foster into sticking around. But a new offensive coordinator put Foster in a scheme that reduced his numbers to 570 yards and only one touchdown as Tennessee finished 5-7 and Fulmer was dismissed.

After Foster missed the NFL combine with a pulled hamstring and had a so-so Pro Day, his stock tumbled. Though the Texans didn’t pick Foster, they liked what they saw enough to sign him to a free agent contract. “You’re looking at ability, you’re looking at size,” said coach Gary Kubiak. “I knew some guys that knew him. I knew he was very intelligent. You’re seeing things on film that he’s got a chance to play in our league.”

Still, Houston cut Foster in training camp before adding him to the practice squad. After they activated him in mid-November he promptly became the force the Texans hoped he could be. Foster got his first start against the Patriots in the season finale, when Houston still was in postseason contention. “It was like, he can play well, he’s going to start this game, we’ll see how he does,” recalled Foster. “I just remember thinking it was an honor to be a starting running back in the NFL, period, but to be a starting running back on an NFL team that still had playoff aspirations . . . ”