Gotta hand it to them: Brady, Patriots rally for another AFC title

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- There is no one the New England Patriots would rather have with the ball in his hands when a game is on the line than Tom Brady, even when his hands are battered and bruised.

Although questionable for the Sunday game against the Jacksonville Jaguars due to a right hand injury, the ageless 40-year-old quarterback proved his mettle again while orchestrating yet another game-winning drive to send New England back to the Super Bowl.

Brady's 4-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola with 2:48 remaining put the Patriots ahead for good in a 24-20 victory against the Jaguars in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium.

New England will meet the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on February 4.

  
All week long, Brady ducked questions from the media about his hand, which required stitches after he was hurt on the practice field Wednesday when he accidentally struck teammate Rex Burkhead's helmet.

"Well, I said, 'We'll see (if I play),'" Brady said while accepting the Lamar Hunt Trophy, awarded to the AFC champion, at midfield after the game. "So how'd it go?"

Following the Patriots' go-ahead score, Jacksonville faced a fourth-and-15 after driving to the New England 43-yard-line. However, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles' deep toss down the sideline to Dede Westbrook was broken up by Stephon Gilmore.

"We had a two-minute drive at the end of the game to win the AFC championship, so there's not a whole lot more you can ask for than that," a reflective Bortles said.

Amendola finished with seven catches for 84 yards and two scores for the Patriots, who extended their own NFL record with an unprecedented 10th trip to the Super Bowl.

"You cherish these moments and opportunities, and I know we've had quite a few of them, which we've been very blessed to do," said Brady, who completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two TDs. "It's just been an unbelievable run, and I think everyone should be really proud of what we accomplished."

Last year, New England erased a 28-3 Super Bowl deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28, in overtime and claim their fifth championship.

"This is what I dreamt about as a fan in the stands just like all of you, and now we have to go to Minnesota and finish the job," Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who purchased the Patriots 24 years ago to the day Sunday, told the crowd during the trophy ceremony.

"It's just been a great year," Brady added. "It'd be really great if we take care of business in a couple weeks, so we'll see."

Bortles threw for 293 yards (23 of 36) and a touchdown, and Leonard Fournette rushed for 76 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries to lead the Jaguars.

Jacksonville was playing in its third-ever AFC title game and its first since 1999.

"(Our locker) room fully expected to win this game, and I think everybody is shocked, disappointed and upset," Bortles said.

Josh Lambo's 54-yard field goal with 10:23 left in the third quarter and another from 43 yards seconds into the fourth bumped Jacksonville's lead to 20-10.

Brady led New England down the field quickly and hit Amendola for a 9-yard touchdown with 8:44 to go to bring the Pats within three.

Bortles marched the Jaguars down the field 76 yards and found a wide-open Marcedes Lewis for a 4-yard touchdown pass at 14:15 of the second quarter, making it 7-3.

With 7:06 to play in the quarter, Fournette's 4-yard rushing score capped a 77-yard drive to extend Jacksonville's lead to 14-3.

"We were able to get the lead. Then we did not make enough plays to keep the lead. We had an opportunity at the end of the game to win it, and we did not do that," Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said.

Rob Gronkowski's 21-yard catch on the second play of ensuing drive moved him past Dallas Clark into first place on the NFL's all-time postseason receiving yardage list for a tight end.

Minutes later, Gronkowski left the game with a head injury after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit from Jaguars safety Barry Church at the Jacksonville 40-yard line with 1:23 remaining before halftime.

Although Gronkowski was deemed questionable to return, he never did.

"It's hard when you lose such a critical part of your team and offense, and hopefully he's OK," Brady said of Gronkowski. "It was a tough shot he took, and he's as tough as they come."

Church was flagged for unnecessary roughness, helping to set up a 1-yard TD run by James White three plays later to bring the Patriots within four at the break.

New England led, 3-0, after one quarter.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Patriots beat Steelers, set up Super Bowl vs Falcons

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots scored the first 19 points of the second half to turn a tight contest into a romp as they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-17 on Sunday to set up a Super Bowl clash against the high-scoring Atlanta Falcons.

The American Football Conference (AFC) Championship triumph propelled the Patriots to a record ninth trip to the Super Bowl, while Atlanta walloped the Green Bay Packers 44-21 in the NFC Championship game earlier on Sunday to earn a shot at their first league title in their Super showdown in Houston on Feb. 5.

Victory was extra sweet for the Patriots and Brady, who was suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the season for his role in the controversial underinflation of balls in the AFC title game two years ago that came to be known as Deflategate.

New England began the season 3-1 before Brady rejoined them and took them to a 14-2 regular season record and a winning streak that has now reached nine games.

Brady, who completed 32 of 42 passes for 384 yards and three touchdowns, avoided saying he felt extra motivation after accepting a suspension he did not feel he deserved.

"This is my motivation right here, all these fellows right here in front of me. That's why we're here," Brady said at the trophy presentation as he gestured toward his teammates.

"We'll see if we can write the perfect ending in a couple of weeks. It's going to take a big effort. We're playing a great team, but it's going to be a hell of a game."

The Steelers, who were also vying to become the first team to make a ninth Super Bowl appearance, stopped the Patriots' running attack, but had a hard time containing Brady and his stable of receivers, most notably Chris Hogan.

Playing in his 11th conference title game, Brady spread the field with his receivers and time and again found Hogan, hitting him with first-half scoring strikes of 34 and 16 yards as New England took a 17-9 lead at intermission.

The long TD catch by Hogan came on a trick play known as a flea flicker. Brady handed off to running back Dion Lewis, who ran forward before tossing the ball back to Brady, who lofted the touchdown pass to a wide open Hogan in the end zone.

Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger gained yards in shorter chunks but had trouble getting the Steelers into the end zone against a New England defense and stellar secondary that led the NFL in fewest points allowed during the regular season.

The vaunted running game of the Steelers produced only 54 yards, slowed when Le'Veon Bell was sidelined in the second quarter with a groin injury.

Roethlisberger completed 31 of 47 for 314 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The usually taciturn Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was enthused to be going to his seventh Super in partnership with Brady, looking for a fifth Super Bowl ring.

"Great players. It's all about the players," Belichick said at the trophy ceremony. "They work hard, they're unselfish and they're tough.

"The players played hard, they played smart. We took care of the ball, played good defense and to hold that team to nine points for 50 minutes is pretty good."

(Editing by Andrew Both)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

SPORTS WRAP: McIlroy targets hot start in PGA Tour season opener

World number three Rory McIlroy aims to make up for lost time by regaining the habit of being in tournament contention when he tees off in the first round of this week's Frys.com Open, the opening event on the 2015-16 PGA Tour.

The Northern Irishman was sidelined for almost two months after rupturing a ligament in his ankle while playing soccer with friends on July 4, forcing him to miss the British Open at St. Andrews, one of his favourite venues, among other events.

Though he triumphed three times this year, all those wins came before the end of May and he is eager to recapture his usual ability of contending virtually every time he competes, starting this week at Silverado Resort in Napa, California.

"Since I've come back from the injury, I've had a couple of good finishes but not really been in contention," McIlroy, 26, told reporters on Wednesday while preparing for Thursday's opening round.

"So I want to get back into contention, have chances to win tournaments. That's really my focus until the end of the year. I've got four opportunities to do that from now until Dubai," he said, referring to the PGA Tour and its European equivalent.

A four-time major champion, McIlroy described 2015 as something of a 'lost year' because of his inability to add further wins in golf's blue riband events to his career resume.





Pats' Brady says no extra motivation for Colts clash

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady feels no added motivation for Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts team that triggered the "Deflategate" scandal that nearly kept him off the field for four games.

While many believe this matchup will have extra edge because of the fallout from their AFC Championship Game in January, both Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick maintained it would be 'business as usual' when the Patriots visit the Colts.

"I'm always pretty motivated," Brady told a news conference on Wednesday when asked if he would have added incentive for the game in Indianapolis.

"It'll be an exciting game. I know they've got a good team. They've won three straight. They made some changes this offseason, so they're a very confident team.

"It's going to take a great effort to beat them, so we'll work hard at practice today, over the next few days, hopefully get us prepared, and then go out and try to beat a good team on the road on Sunday night."

When pressed on how there could not be extra incentive, Brady replied: "I'm always pretty motivated regardless of the opponent, regardless of the team or the week, whether it's a preseason game, whether it's a regular season game.

"They're all important because there are so few of those where you get an opportunity in your life, so I don't take it for granted.

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