FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Willie McGinest’s career was headed downhill. Serious injuries sidelined him, he lost his starting position and the Patriots were a bad team.

Now they’re one of the best in NFL history and McGinest is a big reason.

“A couple years ago, people counted me out,” the 34-year-old outside linebacker said, “but I have a commitment to the game like no other. This is my life. This is what I do.”

He did plenty Saturday night when New England beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-3 in a wild-card game. He set a single-game playoff record with 4½ sacks and a career record with 16 postseason sacks, passing Reggie White and Bruce Smith.

“We have a long road to go. We are not worried about any records,” said McGinest, as the Patriots prepared to play at Denver next weekend. “Right now we are just worried about getting better.”

Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio was still trying to figure out what went wrong.

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“He had a monster night,” Del Rio said Sunday. “I’m not sure how it happened and why it happened, but it was a problem in the game. Any time a guy gets that many sacks, it’s a problem.”

The Patriots chose McGinest with the fourth pick of the 1994 NFL draft out of Southern California. But knee and hamstring injuries kept him out of five games in 1997 and a groin injury cost him seven games in 1998.

In 2000, Bill Belichick’s first season as coach, the Patriots were 5-11. In 2001, McGinest played in only 11 regular-season games, starting five. But he did sack Kurt Warner in New England’s Super Bowl win over St. Louis that season. In 2003, McGinest was a backup until Rosevelt Colvin broke his hip in the second game. McGinest finished with two sacks in that game.

On Saturday night, he made his 47th straight start, including playoffs, despite playing with padding on his injured right hand for most of the season. His 78 regular-season sacks are third in club history.

“Willie was one of the guys I admired when I came here as a rookie” in 2001, defensive end Richard Seymour said. “He’s just continued to show the type of player that he is.”

The Jaguars (12-5) had to worry about a strong defensive front seven and left outside linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, who led the Patriots in regular-season sacks. With Tom Brady throwing three scoring passes, New England led 28-3 after Asante Samuel’s 73-yard interception return for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.

That allowed McGinest to rush quarterbacks Byron Leftwich, who missed the previous six weeks with a broken ankle, and David Garrard more aggressively.

“You know they can’t run the ball. They don’t have enough time,” McGinest said. “So you force them into a one-dimensional game. Any time you do that, it’s pass rush time.”

He was credited with 2½ sacks in the last 12 minutes.

“He kept telling us all game, ‘Give me a little time. We’ll get there.’ He did that,” said wide receiver Troy Brown, who caught a touchdown pass and had four tackles as a cornerback. “That’s Willie. He’s the engine that won’t stop.”

For the fifth time in six games, the Patriots (11-6) held an opponent below 100 yards rushing. They did give up 247 yards passing, but Samuel’s interception crushed Jacksonville’s hopes. They also set an NFL record of 10 consecutive playoff wins, breaking the mark Green Bay set in the 1960s.

So the Patriots have a chance at an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl victory, but don’t have the first-round bye they had when they won three championships in the last four years.

Against Jacksonville, they led 7-3 at halftime despite an average starting position at their 40-yard line.

“Next week it isn’t going to be good enough with the performance we had tonight,” Seymour said.

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But the Jaguars managed one first down on 12 third downs and three of McGinest’s 4½ sacks came on those plays.

“When I looked up and saw 4½ sacks, I said, ‘That’s got to be wrong, man,”’ Jaguars running back Fred Taylor said. “He knows exactly what it takes in a game like this.”

McGinest didn’t think about the career sack record until the end of the game and said he was honored to pass such outstanding players as Smith, who had 14½ sacks, and White, who had 12. But he doesn’t know if that was his best game.

“I’ve been playing for 12 years, I can’t remember every game,” McGinest said with a laugh. “I try to stay focused and levelheaded and never get content. Because when you get content, you think you are doing all right, that is when you are not playing well.”