There are not a ton of great matchups in Week 14, but there are some very important games — on both ends of the spectrum. With the postseason landscape starting to take shape, here's an early look at the biggest story lines for this week's games:

1. Want to know if the Patriots can make it back to a sixth Super Bowl under Tom Brady this season? Pay close attention the next two weeks. Media visitors to Foxborough will encounter a buttoned-up group as they prepare for the gauntlet of the visiting Texans this week, followed by the 49ers. It’s as good a two-week test as any NFL team will face this season. The Texans come in winners of every game on the road; the Patriots haven’t fallen at home since Week Two, in what will go down as the upset of the regular season to the Cardinals, now losers of eight straight. More impressive numbers: In his past 22 starts, Texans QB Matt Schaub is 18-4; over his past 23 (including playoffs), Brady is 19-4. And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the combined 20-4 record of both teams is tied for the best in "Monday Night Football" history when each team has played at least 12 games. So yeah, they’re good. "It's a big challenge, but you have to raise your level of play in games like this," Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said Monday.

2. If you remember, Schaub kind of kicked off his career against the Patriots, similar to how Matt Flynn earned his free-agent contract, in part, with one of his two starts for the Falcons, his former team. Schaub’s first career start in Atlanta was against the Patriots in 2005, and though he lost 31-28, he was sharp. The Texans were convinced that he could be their starter and traded multiple draft picks to the Falcons for him after the 2006 season. Although it has not always been smooth, he has guided the team to the upper echelon of the NFL this season. The Texans’ best weapon is their play-action pass, and it’s obviously generated because of the work Arian Foster does up front. The threat of him running allows Schaub to roll out and hit WR Andre Johnson or TE Owen Daniels (most often) for big gainers. The Patriots’ sometimes-shaky secondary had best beware. “You’re talking about a very balanced, very well-put-together offense … between the run and the pass,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “Then the quarterback is obviously a talented player that is really doing a phenomenal job running the system they run. The biggest thing for us obviously is trying to somehow figure out how to stop this running game, which is a critical part of what they do, along with the passing game ability that they have.”