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Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork and the rest of the Texans will be underdogs when they take the field at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night, but Wilfork reached into his own memory bank for a reason why that doesn’t mean all that much.

Wilfork was a member of the Patriots team that was 18-0 heading into the Super Bowl as 12-point favorites after the 2007 season and knows that he was never on a team that ran the table without a loss, which is enough for him to dismiss Houston’s underdog status.

“I think last night we saw a game in Alabama-Clemson, these so-called experts had Clemson as the underdog. In ’07, the experts had the New York Giants as underdogs. Both of those teams went on to win — the Super Bowl and national championship. So it goes to show you what these experts know,” Wilfork said, via ESPN.com. “We’re in a playoff game and you have a shot to give yourself a chance to play for the Big Dance. We’re in that spot. So it will have no bearings on how we’ll go up there and how we’ll feel because of what somebody else said. We’re going to go out and play our tails off.”

Texans coach Bill O’Brien said that the team won’t be using the point spread — the Patriots are favored by more than two touchdowns — as motivation for his team this week, but it seems at least one of his players’ own experiences makes him more than willing to play that card.