FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots don’t know yet who they’ll face in their playoff opener.

But they do have first-hand knowledge about all three potential opponents.

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Tight end Aaron Hernandez gets ready to run a drill during a chilly New England Patriots practice session Wednesday in Foxborough, Mass. The Associated Press

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The Patriots, after all, have already played every one of them. They routed the Indianapolis Colts 59-24 and the Houston Texans 42-14, and lost to the Baltimore Ravens 31-30 on a last-play field goal.

So until he finds out, Coach Bill Belichick is playing it safe. The Patriots will focus on themselves, first and foremost. And as for the opponents? Well …

“We’ll work on everybody,” the coach said Wednesday.

New England (12-4) will be home for the divisional round Jan. 13 against the Texans if they beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Saturday’s AFC wild-card game. If Houston loses, New England will host the winner of Sunday’s game between Baltimore and Indianapolis.

“After the Houston game, we’ll either be full-speed ahead on Houston,” Belichick said, “or we’ll put that in the drawer and wait and see what happens in the next game.”

Either way, New England will be an interested viewer from afar this weekend. And none of the options will be easy, so any extended look the Patriots can get could prove valuable.

Rookie defensive end Chandler Jones doesn’t know if he’ll be trying to sack Houston’s Matt Schaub, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco or Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck. So like his teammates, he’ll watch film. He’ll also review his own handwritten notes from previous games.

“I have a big stack of notes, actually, that I keep,” Jones said, “so it’s good to have those things to look at certain tendencies. I can’t really talk so much about the Colts because I didn’t really play. I was injured (in the first quarter), but, definitely, you can go back through those notes.”

All three possible foes have changed since facing the Patriots. The Ravens, in fact, have had alterations on the coaching staff and lost four of their last five games.

“There’s a lot more information since the time we played them,” Belichick said. “That definitely needs to be analyzed.”

The Patriots were leading 30-20 before Flacco threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith with 4:01 left. Justin Tucker’s 27-yard kick won the game two plays after a pass interference penalty against Devin McCourty.

The loss dropped the Patriots to 1-2. But by the time the Colts visited on Nov. 18, the Patriots were 6-3 and on a roll.

New England quarterback Tom Brady outplayed Luck and the Patriots received a huge boost from the defense and special teams.

The Patriots’ win streak had reached six games when the Texans came to town with the NFL’s best record.

They left with a beating.

The Patriots did lose to the San Francisco 49ers the next week 41-34, then struggled to beat the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, 23-16. But they rebounded with a 28-0 romp over the Miami Dolphins last Sunday.

New England also had a bye after its eighth game, a 45-7 win over the St. Louis Rams in London. Afterward, the Patriots won five straight games, starting with a 37-31 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

But this break is different.

“After the St. Louis game, we knew we were playing Buffalo so there was a certain element of preparation that we could start on with them, even the next couple games after that,” Belichick said. “Now it’s just a one-game season. We don’t know who our opponent is.”

Some players will be glued to their televisions for the wild-card games.

“I’ll watch every game this weekend closely,” safety Steve Gregory said.

Others won’t … or so they say.

“I’ll be hunting,” said running back Stevan Ridley, a native of Mississippi. “I’m going down South.”

All of them will be back by Monday, though, when the identity of their foe is no longer a mystery.

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