The New England Patriots are Super Bowl bound for the eighth time under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
They clinched a spot in the big game after defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20 in the AFC Championship game. Much like their last appearance in the Super Bowl, New England did so in comeback fashion, trailing 14-3 at one point. Brady completed 26 of his 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdown tosses, both the Danny Amendola, in the win.
New England Patriots Clinch Eighth Super Bowl Appearance of Brady-Belichick Era
Much of the talk leading up to Sunday’s clash centered around Tom Brady’s throwing hand. The 40-year-old future Hall of Famer injured it in a collision during practice on Wednesday. It forced him to miss practice on Thursday with the Patriots listing him as questionable on the injury report for the first time in his career during the playoffs.
But Brady wasn’t going to miss out on his 12th AFC title game appearance. The Patriots made that pretty clear when they announced on Saturday that he was the unquestioned starter. That said, he would have to play this game with a collateral ligament sprain of his thumb per MMQB’s Albert Breer. That’s in addition to 12 stitches he received to patch up a cut he suffered during the incident.
Sporting a black bandage over the injury, Brady led the team on a 10-play, 62 yard drive to start the game. But the Jags defense held firm in the red zone. Three plays after a 20-yard Amendola run set the Pats up at the 10, Dante Fowler sacked Brady. It led to a 31-yard field goal from Stephen Gostkowski to make it 3-0.
After the two teams traded punts, Jacksonville began to take control of the game. It included quarterback Blake Bortles doing something not many expected out of him: out-dueling Brady. The fourth-year pro out of UCF threw three passes of 10+ yards on a seven-play, 76 yard drive that culminated in a touchdown toss to Marcedes Lewis. It came via a well-designed play fake that left Lewis, the lone holdover on the Jags roster from their last playoff appearance in 2007, wide open in the end zone.
On the Jags ensuing drive, Bortles got help from talented rookie running back Leonard Fournette. Similar to Brady, the LSU product came into this game dealing with injury issues of his own. Fournette tweaked his ankle in last week’s 45-42 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. But he showed no ill effects on Sunday. That was apparent when he rushed four times for 23 yards including a touchdown run on first and goal from the four to make it 14-3.
Not many considered Bortles capable of a championship performance. Though he was improved against the Steelers, he also was two weeks removed from gaining more yards on the ground than through the air against the Buffalo Bills. But through one half of action, he completed 13 of 15 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown. He also finished the first stanza with a 131.9 quarterback rating.
Nevertheless, the Patriots got themselves back into the game late in the second quarter. Part of it was due to two costly penalties on the part of the Jags. First came an unnecessary roughness call on Barry Church for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Rob Gronkowski that put him out for the rest of the game due to a concussion. One play later, A.J. Bouye committed pass interference on Brandin Cooks. Those 47 yards of penalties shortened the field for New England, who capitalized with a James White rushing touchdown. That cut Jacksonville’s lead to 14-10.
The Jags took moderate advantage of getting the ball to start the second half. Buoyed by two key completions from Bortles including a third down conversion around midfield, they marched into Patriots territory. But New England’s defense held firm and forced the field goal unit on the field. Josh Lambo had no problem, though. The third-year kicker, signed by the Jags after getting cut from the Los Angeles Chargers, finished the season with a 95 percent success rate on field goals. And he split the uprights on the 54-yard attempt, tied for the second longest of his career.
Jacksonville’s vaunted defense continued to stymie Brady and company afterwards. The unit which led the league in pass defense forced incomplete passes on third down during the Patriots next two possessions. Then they put together an 11-play drive that culminated with Lambo kicking through another field goal early in the fourth quarter to extend the Jags lead to two possessions, 20-10.
After Dion Lewis fumbled on the next possession, the Jags seemed to be on the cusp of an epic upset. But that’s when big game Brady made his presence felt. He threw for 93 yards on their next drive which included Brandin Cooks eclipsing 100 receiving yards in a playoff game for the first time in his career. Later on in the drive, he found Amendola in the end zone on a nine-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to three.
Jacksonville needed one more touchdown to seal the unlikely win. But they punted on their next two possessions. Then Brady did what we’ve all come to expect of him, put the team on his shoulders late in the game. Amendola helped the team’s cause by returning a punt to the Jags’ 30-yard line. And with just under five minutes left in the game, Brady and company embarked on the game-winning drive that ended with him finding Amendola for the second time.
The Pats will take on the winner of the NFC Championship game between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles. If the Vikings are able to go on the road and come out victorious, it will mark the first time in NFL history that a team will have home field advantage in the Super Bowl. The game takes place at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on February 4th with kickoff slated for 6:30 PM ET.
