Brady, Patriots Remain Perfect
New England Quarterback Riddles Jaguars During 31-20 Victory
MVP Tom Brady torches Jacksonville to lead Patriots to AFC Championship game for fourth time in five years. New England dominates second half, holds off upset-minded Jags
The New England Patriots continued their season-long drive for perfection, so it was appropriate that all-world quarterback Tom Brady turned in a nearly perfect performance Saturday night.
Brady, the NFL’s most valuable player, completed his first 16 pass attempts and finished 26 of 28 for 262 yards and three touchdowns as the Patriots improved to 1-0 in the postseason and to 17-0 overall with a 31-20 victory over Jacksonville in the AFC Divisional playoffs.
New England advanced to the AFC Championship game for the fourth time in the last five seasons, where the Pats awaited the San Diego-Indianapolis winner, and they’ll do it at Gillette Stadium.
Brady connected with tight end Ben Watson for a 3-yard score to tie the game at 7-all, drilled a 6-yard rope to Wes Welker to cap an 82-yard drive to open the second half and then hooked up with Watson again from 9 yards out to give New England a 28-17 advantage late in the third quarter.
“The thing about it now is that none of it matters,” Brady told reporters afterward. “For 17 games, it all comes down to this and we were here last year. I hope we perform better.”
Bill Belichick’s top-seeded Pats also got 122 yards on 22 carries and one TD from Laurence Maroney as they controlled the second half and moved the ball methodically for much of the game. And they accomplished that feat without a big game from Brady’s big-game weapon, Randy Moss, who caught one pass for 14 yards on their first drive of the game, although his catch came on a fourth-down play.
Jacksonville, the AFC’s fifth seed, managed only 66 yards on 19 attempts from the one-two backfield duo of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. But part of that was by design as the Jaguars unleashed quarterback David Garrard and the passing attack.
Garrard completed 22 of 33 attempts for 278 yards, which featured touchdown tosses to Matt Jones in the first quarter and to Ernest Wilford in the second that ended a 95-yard drive. However, Garrard lost a fumble and threw an interception to Rodney Harrison, while the Patriots didn’t commit any turnovers.
While the Jaguars masterfully took Moss out of the game, Donte Stallworth contributed a 53-yard catch, Welker led the way with nine receptions and super veteran Kevin Faulk added five catches out of the backfield.
Seven Jacksonville receivers contributed double-digit gains, including ones for 34, 29 and 25 yards, but it wasn’t nearly enough to derail New England from its road to destiny.
