Patriots Stamp Ticket

For all of the drama that has enveloped the New England Patriots this season, from a blowout loss on opening night to tales of alleged behind-the-scene strife to an injury to Tom Brady’s throwing hand days before the AFC Championship Game, the ending is the same as it always seems to be.

The Patriots are headed back to the Super Bowl.

After rallying from an 11-point first-half deficit for a 24-20 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at Gilllette Stadium, the Patriots will have a chance to win their sixth Super Bowl title when they face the Philadelphia Eagles, who defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game later on Sunday, in Minneapolis in two weeks. This is the eighth Super Bowl appearance for Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, as well as an NFL-best 10th in franchise history.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Brady said. “It’s pretty amazing. Just to be on a team that wins these kinds of games, it’s just a great accomplishment. I’m just so proud of everyone on our team, we made so many great plays. Defense played so great when they needed to. Just an amazing game.”

This AFC championship should be extra satisfying for the 40-year-old Brady given the uncertainty on the status of his throwing hand, which he injured in practice on Wednesday. He did not participate in practice on Thursday, and added to the intrigue about his status when he wore gloves to his news conference on Friday.

Brady quickly answered the major questions about his hand injury when he emerged for pregame warmups without a glove on his right hand. Instead he had just a thick strip of protective black tape that stretched from the back of his hand and wrapped around his thumb and onto his palm.

“We’re not talking about open-heart surgery here,” Belichick said of Brady’s injury.

Brady went 6-for-6 for 57 yards on the Patriots’ opening drive and finished with 290 yards on 26-of-38 passing. His second touchdown strike of the game to Danny Amendola with 2:48 remaining gave New England a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

But even if the drama surrounding Brady’s hand in the days leading up to the game was proven to be overblown, there were issues for the Patriots’ offense against the NFL’s top-rated pass defense.

The Jaguars defense seemed to stun the Patriots offense with its speed, with a consistent four-man pass rush that sacked Brady three times (and hit him seven times), and linebackers that swarmed the Patriots’ running bacs to limit yards after the catch.
The Patriots, who converted 40% of their third downs in the regular season, converted just three of 12 attempts, and none in the first half.

That opening drive ended at midfield, but it set up the Jaguars next possession, as Jacksonville picked up two long gains on screen passes to speedy tailback Corey Grant, and scored on a 4-yard touchdown from Bortles to tight end Marcedes Lewis when the Patriots defense bit hard on a run fake.

Grant had 59 receiving yards in the first half, a career-high for a single game, and easily surpassing his previous season total of 41 yards.

The Jaguars extended their lead midway through the second quarter, as Fournette bulldozed into the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown run. It was the Jaguars’ 18th touchdown in their last 19 drives, dating back to the regular season.

The Patriots were able to complete their comeback without star tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was knocked out of the game in the second quarter (shortly after making his only catch of the game) on an illegal hit from Jaguars safety Barry Church. Gronkowski, who missed last year’s Super Bowl run after having back surgery, will be in the concussion protocol as the Patriots’ begin their Super Bowl preparations.

The penalty on Church, and a questionable flag for pass interference on Jaguars cornerback A.J. Bouye on the next play, set up the Patriots’ first touchdown. The 1-yard run by James White with 55 seconds left in the second quarter cut Jacksonville’s lead to 14-10 and injected life back into the Gillette Stadium crowd.

Despite building a multi-score first-half lead for the second consecutive week, there were times that the Jaguars’ playoff inexperience showed. Jacksonville was called for a delay of game – coming out of a Patriots time out – shortly before the two-minute warning, and that flag wiped out a third-down completion. The Jaguars were forced to punt, but did so with 2:02 on the clock, leaving Brady with plenty of time to run a two-minute drill.

The Patriots hardly seemed phase by the halftime deficit, following the same path that led them to last year’s historic Super Bowl comeback from a 28-3 deficit against the Atlanta Falcons.

Brady zipped long completions to Amendola (on third-and-18) and Phillip Dorsett off a flea flicker before throwing a 9-yard touchdown to Amendola to cut Jacksonville’s lead to 20-17.

Meanwhile, the Patriots’ defense largely shut down Fournette in the second half and held the Jaguars to a pair of field goals in the third quarter. New England also forced a three-and-out deep in Jacksonville territory with about five minutes remaining.

That gave Brady excellent field position, and the Patriots quickly capitalized. Brady found Amendola again, for a 4-yard touchdown at the back of the end zone, to retake the lead for the first time since it was 3-0 in the first quarter.

The Jaguars had one final chance to win the game, and Bortles hit a 29-yard pass to Dede Westbrook to put the crowd at Gillette on edge. But after a second-down sack backed the Jags up, Bortles desperation pass on fourth down fell incomplete, setting off a celebration on the Patriots sideline.