Welcome to the Friday Five, postseason edition!

Every week until the Patriots’ playoff run is over, I will drop five team-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.

Ready, set, football.

1. Pop goes the deep ball

It’s been a quiet second half of the season for DeMario Douglas.

He hasn’t topped 40 receiving yards in a game in two months. He’s caught multiple passes just once since the bye. Not even an extended injury to Mack Hollins or extra playing time in blowouts has brought a breakout performance.

So why might Douglas pop off Sunday against the best defense he’s ever seen? He does what few Patriots wideouts can: burn man-to-man coverage.

“At the end of the day, we know we’re going to get man coverage,” Pats receiver Kayshon Boutte told reporters this week. “We’ve gotta beat it. It’s that simple.”

Last Sunday, Drake Maye finished 1-of-5 for seven yards, with three sacks and 39 rushing yards against man-to-man. Despite playing just 26% of the team’s offensive snaps, Douglas has the second-most catches of any Patriots wide receiver versus man coverage with 10 receptions on 14 targets for 179 yards and a touchdown, per Pro Football Focus. Josh McDaniels has created a unique role for him as a situational deep threat where Douglas often takes off from the slot in obvious passing situations.

The clearest example of his usage came in wins versus New Orleans and Atlanta earlier this season, when Douglas caught deep passes, scored long touchdowns and topped 100 receiving yards in both games. Douglas doesn’t see the field as often as he once did, but his combination of long speed (4.44 in the 40-yard dash) and elite quickness are unique to him among Pats receivers.

On Wednesday, Diggs outlined exactly what Douglas and the rest of the wideouts must do to beat the Texans when they’re challenged 1-on-1.

New England Patriots wide receiver DeMario Douglas runs from Atlanta Falcons’ Xavier Watts and Jessie Bates III for a first down during a game earlier this season at Gillette Stadium. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

“It’s gonna be huge for us to run routes the right way and be available for the quarterback,” Diggs said. “There’s gonna be a lot of contested catches and things like that, so just play what you see.”

2. The No. 1 Maye play

Patriots quarterback coach Ashton Grant has watched, re-watched and broken down all 1,050 snaps Maye has taken this year.

Of those 1,050, he has a favorite.

Maye’s 33-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Williams late in the first half of the Pats’ 33-7 blowout of the Giants on Monday Night Football is a highlight, Grant said, because of his execution throughout the entire play.

“Just because there’s a lot of stuff going on at the line of scrimmage that he was able to take care of and communicate to the other 10 guys on offense,” Grant said Thursday. “And then we were able to hit an explosive, so that’s one of the things that stand out.”

The Giants defense showed man-blitz pressure at the snap with no safeties deep, then spun into a zone blitz look that left six players in coverage. Once Maye had adjusted his protection to block the five rushers, he stepped back calmly in the pocket and hit Williams down the sideline to beat single coverage. Grant also mentioned his 55-yard completion to Rhamondre Stevenson at Miami back in Week 2, when Maye slid up into the pocket to avoid pressure, kept his eyes downfield and put perfect touch on another long ball.

“I think when I go back at the end of the season and kind of grade the entire season as a whole, and start to make the teach tapes and everything for next year, those will be two plays that are at the forefront,” he said.

3. Brotherly love

New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels speaks to the media as the Pats prepare for a playoff game. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

On Sunday, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will face his younger brother, Ben, the Texans’ pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach, for what he estimated will be the fourth time in their respective careers.

Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs on Wednesday claimed the two have maintained an “older-little brother (rivalry) thing.” Diggs played for Ben in Houston last year and said the experience has been similar under Josh this season.

“They’re a lot similar in regard to how you work, and the time that you put in and how seriously they take it. They love football,” Diggs said. “I can tell it’s a little brother rivalry there. We’ll see how Sunday goes, if they throw the gloves off or something or talk to each other.”

Ben is in his fifth season with the Texans. He originally entered the NFL as an assistant on Josh’s first staff as a head coach in Denver in 2009, then later made stops in Tampa Bay and with the Bears.

Even Maye has gotten in on the fun, according to Pats quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, who says he’s been ribbing Josh in meetings.

“He’s trying to get Josh riled up a little bit,” Grant said. “Josh is a very competitive person himself, so I think Drake tries to nudge him a little bit, which is fun for the room.”

4. All eyes on Autry

In another Patriots era, Bill Belichick would have spent several minutes this week waxing poetic about Denico Autry.

Autry, a veteran defensive lineman in his 12th year, has 14 career blocked field goals, including the Texans’ lone block this year. Mike Vrabel is familiar with Autry, having coached him in Tennessee for two seasons. This week, Vrabel described the 6-foot-5, 285-pounder as having a great knack for timing his rushes on field goal blocks, and then using his length to either get straight up or swim past a lineman to reach the backfield.

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“We have to do everything that we can to make it not be 15 (blocks),” Vrabel said.

Special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer said Thursday the Patriots have a “very high” awareness for where Autry will be and how he could disrupt Sunday’s game. Springer then cited his 14 career blocked field goals.

“That should say enough right there about how much I’m paying attention to that guy,” he said.

5. Vrabel vs. Ryans

Both Vrabel and Texans coach Demeco Ryans played in the NFL in the early 2000s, a time when analytics had a minor role in football decision-making.

Now, it’s revolutionized how coaches operate on fourth down, where Vrabel ranks among the most aggressive in the league, and that aggression has paid off by extending several touchdown drives this season.

Ryans, on the other hand, seems stuck in his playing days.

The Texans attempted the second-fewest fourth downs during the regular season, and Ryans ranked as the third-most conservative coach in the playoffs, according to an analytical model that accounts for game score and situation when advising whether to go for it, kick a field goal or punt on fourth down. Last week, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh may have left points on the field by kicking a field goal on fourth-and-two at the Patriots’ 3-yard line, where if Los Angeles had turned the ball over, Maye and Co. would have been backed up.

Vrabel, on the other hand, has called for the Patriots to go for it often when in enemy territory with fewer than six yards to go. Some fourth-down tries have led directly to touchdowns, including a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass at Tampa Bay before halftime; aggressive calls that could pay even bigger dividends against Houston this weekend.