FOXBOROUGH — Coming into the Houston Texans AFC divisional round matchup against the Patriots, Vince Wilfork still was mulling the possibility of retirement. But after the Texans’ 34-16 loss, the 35-year-old defensive tackle said it’s more likely that his football career will end where it started.

“I think I’ll take my time and think about it, but I think I’ve played my last NFL football game,’’ said Wilfork, who spent 11 years in New England before signing with the Texans as a free agent in 2015. “But I’ll take my time, do my due diligence and sit back and see if I really want to retire and all that stuff. We’ll see.

“I don’t know how long that will take, but it doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed every bit of my career. I enjoyed 11 years in the league. I enjoyed two great years in Texas with these teammates, unbelievable teammates. I couldn’t have any better teammates from both organizations. You’re talking about organizations, top of the class, just two owners that anyone would love to play for.’’

Wilfork was the anchor on the line of the NFL’s top defense this season, but he was also instrumental in the emergence of defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who reached the Pro Bowl for the first time this season.

“He pushed me,’’ Clowney said. “He pushed me every day and I appreciate him. I tell the coaches we need him. He was a big help for this defense to have him out there and he’s going to be missed.’’

Clowney said he could sense that Wilfork was leaning toward retirement, which made the loss that much more disappointing.

“I love that dude, man,’’ Clowney said. “He taught me a lot since he’s been here for these past two years. I just like him around, man. That’s one thing I really feel bad about. I really wanted to win for him, and I told him I’d give everything I got for him, especially since I knew it was his last game.’’

O’Brien will be back

A week ago, Texans owner Bob McNair cleared the air about rumors that coach Bill O’Brien may not return for the 2017 season amid rumors of tension between O’Brien and general manager Rick Smith, saying he had no intentions of firing the head coach.

After the Texans’ loss on Saturday, O’Brien made it clear as well that he intended to be back next season.

“I’ll be back next year,’’ O’Brien said. “I’ll be the Texans’ head coach. I signed a five-year contract. This is year three. Like I’ve said, I need to do a better job. I think we have a good football team. Overall, we need to do a better job, especially on offense. I’m going to work hard to try to get that improved this offseason.’’

O’Brien acknowledged that the speculation had started to wear on him.

“I’m really just tired of answering it,’’ he said. “You can’t even have a sense of humor about it. I will be the head coach of the Houston Texans. I’m looking forward to working this offseason to try to improve the team. I really enjoy coaching this team.’’

Boiling pot

During his days as Patriots offensive coordinator, O’Brien earned the nickname “Teapot’’ for his propensity to boil over from time to time.

Former Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer even bought a teapot and he and Brady would etch some of O’Brien’s more memorable outbursts on it.

“That teapot got pretty full by the end of the year because it would just — Billy simmers, and simmers, and simmers and then he just unleashes,’’ Brady said, laughing at the memory. “We had him marked down in the teapot. It was pretty great. As the season went along we’d just fill that teapot up more and more. I think we tried to give it to him as a gift at one point. But there was a lot of funny memories. That teapot had a lot of really funny moments on it.’’

Looking back, O’Brien can smile.

“I don’t even know if it was a teapot, it looked more like they had made it into a trophy with the lines and things like that,’’ he said. “A lot of that stuff was made up, too — the stuff they wrote on there — so you can’t believe everything they write. I don’t know where that it is, I’m not sure where that it is.’’