After blowing a lot of their opponents away in the early going, New England has had several close games through the second portion of the season.
But, they won every one of them, and last night, passed another stiff test, holding off the pesky Jaguars to book a potential rematch with Indianapolis in next week’s AFC Championship Game.
The talk of the night was, unsurprisingly, Tom Brady, who went 26 of 28 (that’s not a typo, that’s 92.9%) for 262 yards and three touchdowns.
The Jaguars took an early lead, but the Patriots struck back with two straight touchdowns to take a 14-7 lead. Jacksonville tied the game at 14 in the second quarter, and that’s the way it was at halftime.
But, the Patriots came out of the locker room and put seven on the board, and didn’t relinquish the lead from that point, on the way to their 17th straight win.
Both teams moved the ball very well, as each team punted only once the entire night.
Jacksonville did all they could to keep up, but in the end, they just weren’t able to stop the offensive machine that is Brady’s bunch.
Player of the Game: Brady - Well, duh. He threw only one deep pass, which Donte’ Stallworth caught for a back-breaking 53-yard gain, and Randy Moss caught only one pass for 14 yards, but Brady accomplished a lot more by using a lot of short passes. He took time off of the clock, and he kept moving the ball, again and again and again. By the time he was done, he’d set a single-game record for highest completion percentage, both in regular season and playoffs.
Play of the Game: After pulling within 28-20 with 9:44 to go, the Jaguars needed a stop, but on second and 9 from the 21, Brady threw his only deep pass of the game, and made it count, with Stallworth hauling it in for the big gain, which put New England in field goal range. The Jaguars defense made the stop from there, but the damage was done, as Stephen Gostkowski nailed a 35-yard field goal to put the Pats up by the decisive margin with only 6:39 to go.
Why the Patriots won: Because they’re the Patriots, and it’s the playoffs. No, though that would seem like reason enough, wouldn’t it?
Firstly, the played mistake-free football on offense, and minus one Brady pass that could have been picked off, they didn‘t give the Jaguars a chance to get a huge defensive play.
But, more importantly, not only did Brady have a big game (surprise!), but New England also got a big night from Laurence Maroney, and having that extra dimension to their offense made them even harder to stop. Frankly, I might take that Player of the Game award from Brady and give it to Maroney, because he deserves it just as much, if not more.