Tom Brady (3 TDs), James White (2 TD) help Patriots run over Titans 35-14, Advance to 7th straight AFC Championship

[arve url=”https://youtu.be/PFJBo6rhSPQ” /]

FOXBORO — Forget the distractions. Forget the concern over the physical Tennessee Titans. Forget worries about their quarterback being rusty in the last month. There was no denying the Patriots in their bid for a seventh straight trip to the AFC championship.

James White returned from an ankle injury to score the game’s first two touchdowns while Chris Hogan came back from a shoulder injury and caught a key touchdown late in the first half as the Patriots overcame a sluggish start and rolled the Titans, 35-14, Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. They advance to play the winner of Sunday’s Jaguars-Steelers playoff game in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 3:05 at Gillette.

“It’s pretty incredible to be a part of that,” said Tom Brady after throwing three touchdown passes in the win. “I think the thing is that we don’t really take it for granted around here. I know how hard it is to get to this game. We’re very blessed to do it. It takes a lot of things, a lot of good fortune, a lot of hard work, but obviously a lot of great blessings. I think our team has proven over the course of the year we can win important games against good teams and we did that tonight and that’s why you keep moving on.

“The reality of the NFL is what we did this week will have nothing to do with what happens next week. We’re going to have to go repeat it, so you’ve got to get right back to work, right back to the process of trying to figure out how to breakdown our opponent. Everyone’s got to feel good physically and mentally and go out there and try to cut it loose one more time in a huge game.”

The talk of tension among Brady, Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft will have to wait as they clearly weren’t affected by the ESPN story of Jan. 5 claiming dissension in the building. Before Saturday’s game, there was word breaking that the three will meet after the postseason to air out any disagreements.

Danny Amendola caught 11 passes for 112 yards, his first career 100-yard game while the Patriots defense harassed quarterback Marcus Mariota all night and held Derrick Henry to 28 yards on 12 carries. Tom Brady was 35-for-53 for 337 yards and three touchdowns. Brady’s three touchdown passes gave him 10 for his postseason career, breaking a tie with Joe Montana for most in NFL history. He also extended his NFL postseason record with 13 games of at least 300 yards passing. For a full boxscore, click here.

Brady said after the game he wasn’t trying to silence any critics, just make it to the AFC Championship again.

“You know what, no. I’ve been around long enough; 18 years. There’s been so many nice things said about me,” Brady said of the critics from the ESPN article. “That just goes with the territory. I just try to be consistent, show up and do the best I can do every week for the team and regardless of whether I’m the worst quarterback in the league or the best quarterback in the league or somewhere in-between, it’s just my job is to do the best I can do for us every week. It was a good team win today. We’re going to need another one next week. Whoever we play is going to be a great team. I’m looking forward to playing in the championship game.”

Devin McCourty had his own take on why the story was completely irrelevant to the team.

“I think the team just focused on Tennessee, and I think it will be the same thing next week,” McCourty said. “This time of year, there’s no such thing to me as distractions. Unless you have some issue going on with your family or something like that, there is nothing else that can distract you. I don’t care what comes out, what’s said, our goal from the beginning of the season was to be able to play in the playoffs and try to go out there and win games in the playoffs.

“There’s nothing right now that can deter us from that. We’re going to stay focused on that, try to play our best game each week that we earn the right to go back out there and I think we know that. We know once you get in the playoffs, it’s not given to you. You’ve got to go earn it. We did that tonight. Now it’s all about getting ready to go for next week.”

The Patriots dominated in two key areas, third down and field position. The Patriots converted 11 of their first 16 third-down chances while holding the Titans to 5-for-15 and sacking Mariota eight times, a new Patriots postseason record.

When Bill Belichick took the sideline Saturday night, he set more playoff history. He coached his 37th playoff game, breaking a tie with Don Shula and Tom Landry for most in NFL history.

The game was not as cold as the Patriots’ last home game against the Jets on New Year’s Eve, when they played in the coldest regular season game ever at Gillette Stadium. And it was a far cry from the wind chill of minus-10 when these two teams played last in the postseason, Jan. 10, 2004, a Patriots’ 17-14 win. Still, the weather was cold and brisk Saturday, with a game-time temperature of 24. With a wind out of the north at 12 MPH, the wind chill was 13 above.

The game opened with the Patriots winning the toss and electing to receive. After a 14-yard gain to Rob Gronkowski on a 3rd-and-1, Brady and the offense stalled at midfield and the Patriots were forced to punt. On their next drive, facing third-and-8, Brady found Danny Amendola for 15 to get into Titans territory for the first time. But the drive stalled again.

It was Mariota who finally warmed up, engineering an 11-play, 95-yard drive after Ryan Allen pinned the Titans inside the 10. A penalty pushed the Titans back to their 5 to open the drive. There were two big plays on the drive, a 36-yard connection on the opening play to the Titans 41. Then Mariota used his legs. A pair of 11-yard runs, one up the middle and the other designed around the right end, put the Titans at the Patriots 19.

Two plays later, Mariota lofted a pass for Corey Davis in the back left corner of the end zone. With Malcolm Butler draped on him, Davis stuck out his left hand and hauled in the 15-yard pass for a spectacular touchdown reception. The Titans led 7-0 after the first 15 minutes.

With the Patriots, two-touchdown favorites, facing adversity and down 7-0, Brady engineered a seven-play, 73-yard scoring drive. The key play was a swing pass to the right flat to an uncovered Dion Lewis. He ran untouched until he got to the Titans 20.

He was tackled there by linebacker Wesley Woodyard. He was ruled not down by contact and got up and ran into the end zone for a touchdown. Replay cleared showed his backside hit the turf at the 19. But the Patriots didn’t miss a beat. After another Brady-to-Lewis pass over the middle for 14 yards, Brady dropped the ball into the hands of James White, who ran around the left end for five yards and the game-tying touchdown.

The Patriots took over the game from there.

The next drive featured a short field of just 48 yards for the Patriots. They methodically marched down to the Titans 13 on passes to Brandin Cooks and Lewis and a pair of Lewis runs. After a 7-yard pass to James White, Brady handed off to White, who went around the left end again for six yards and a touchdown, which was upheld upon replay.

The most controversial call of the came came the next time the Patriots got the ball. For the first time they were pinned inside their 10. The Titans forced a 4th-and-5 at New England’s 14, and were about to get good field position. Before the punt, the Patriots were called for a false start. But the officials gathered and turned that into a neutral zone infraction, giving the Patriots enough for a first down. The Patriots used that opportunity to string together 13 more plays, capped off by a Brady third-down dart over the middle to Chris Hogan for four yards, a touchdown and a 21-7 lead.

It could’ve been worse for the Titans. Mariota scrambled on third down but fell at the sideline just a yard short, as he was hit by Devin McCourty. Derrick Henry then lost five yards on fourth down, giving the Patriots one more chance for points with 17 seconds left. But Stephen Gostkowski’s 53-yard field goal attempt with the wind was wide left.

“We saw what happened last week in Kansas City when Kansas City had a lead at the half similar to the one that we had,” Belichick said of Tennessee’s comeback from a 21-3 halftime hole in Kansas City. “Our guys did a real good job of kind of keeping their foot on the gas and keep pressing it.”

The second half opened with more frustrating laundry for the Titans. They had a first down run from Derrick Henry out to their 36. But it was called back for holding as James Harrison drew the penalty. The Titans were then forced to punt.

The Patriots were just as dominant on their next defensive series. Ricky Jean Francois and Marquis Flowers recorded consecutive sacks to force the Titans into a third-and-31 from their 2. The Patriots again started with great field position, taking over at their 44.

Brandon Bolden capped off another short scoring drive with a two-yard run into the end zone, marking his first touchdown since Nov. 30, 2014 in Green Bay and giving the Patriots a commanding 28-7 lead.

With the Patriots pinning their ears back, they continued to harass Mariota. Trey Flowers picked up a sack to force a third-and-22 on the Titans 24.

Brady then highlighted another 90-yard drive with an incredible back-foot pass to Danny Amendola. Two plays later, it was Brady, in much easier fashion, lofting a pass to Rob Gronkowski to give the Patriots 35 unanswered points. Brady kept the foot on the gas from the second quarter on and didn’t let up until Brian Hoyer took the final snaps in victory formation at the end of the game.

“Yeah, we did a good job of that,” Brady said of the team’s killer’s instinct. “I thought once we could get into the drive we did a good job kind of keeping the defense defensive. We had them misaligned a few times, had some easy throws where we had some guys uncovered, but that’s a good way to kind of keep the pressure on the defense. There’s a lot of ways to do it. I think that’s the great advantage of playing at home – communication is really good. Ultimately, our guys made a lot of great plays, executed really well, so many great catches, great blocks. It was just a great team win, great on defense, sacks. I mean, that was incredible.”

Mariota connected with Corey Davis on fourth down for an 11-yard touchdown to close out the scoring with 1:55 left.