Brady leads Patriots to fifth straight AFC title game

Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots snapped the Kansas City Chiefs’ 11-game winning streak with a 27-20 victory on Saturday to reach the AFC championship for a fifth consecutive season. The Patriots, who had a first-round bye, looked to be back at full strength and nothing like the team that lost four of six games heading into the playoffs as they pulled ahead early and never looked back. Brady tossed two touchdowns and rushed for another, Rob Gronkowski caught a pair of TDs to erase any injury concerns and receiver Julian Edelman ended a two-month absence from a broken foot to put New England at full strength. “It’s pretty special to be back in the AFC Championship game,” said Brady, who extended his National Football League record for playoff wins to 22. “Whoever we play is going to be a great team. We’re going to need to be sharper.” The Chiefs, coming off last week’s 30-0 rout of Houston in the wild-card round of the playoffs, entered the game as the hottest team in the NFL but trailed this one the entire way. After pulling to within seven points with 73 seconds to play in regulation, the Chiefs tried an onside kick but Gronkowski recovered the ball. The Patriots then caught a break two plays later when an unwise Brady pass deflected off the hands of Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali’s hands and straight to Edelman who picked up the first down to seal the win. Brady finished with 302 passing yards and kept alive the Patriots’ bid to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since they did it in 2003-04. New England will play the winner of Sunday’s game between the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers to determine which team represents the American Football Conference in the Feb. 7 Super Bowl in San Francisco. The Patriots made a rousing start with an 80-yard scoring drive to open the game and seem to have restored the confidence that looked lost after they ended the regular season poorly and encountered health concerns. “It’s great to have everyone back. The chemistry was clicking tonight,” Gronkowski, who was held out of two practices in the week leading up to the game due to a right knee injury and back injury, told reporters. “Overall we did what we had to do to get the ‘W’.” Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith attempted a career-high 50 passes but finished with just 246 yards and one score. “This gives us a great example of where we need to be,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid. “This is a great experience for us and that’s how we’ll take it. I’m proud of my guys, they battled like crazy and came up a little short.” Cardinals oust Packers after exchange of amazing plays In one of the most dramatic finishes in NFL playoff history, the Arizona Cardinals outlasted the Green Bay Packers 26-20 in overtime Saturday to advance in the post-season. Arizona will face the winner of yesterday’s Carolina-Seattle game on January 24 in the National Conference final to determine a berth in Super Bowl 50 next month. A back-and-forth thriller featuring one astonishing play after another at the finish was not decided until Carson Palmer threw his third touchdown pass of the game, a five-yard “shovel pass” up the middle to Larry Fitzgerald a minute into extra time. A scrambling Palmer earlier eluded Green Bay defenders to find an unguarded Fitzgerald on a 75-yard pass play that set up the winning score, but only after the Packers forced overtime with two of the most amazing plays ever made. Trailing 20-13 in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter, the Packers needed 20 yards merely to keep the ball on a fourth-down play when Aaron Rodgers hurled a long pass downfield and unlikely hero Jeff Janis caught it for a 60-yard gain to sustain Green Bay’s slim hopes. Janis, who had only four career catches before Saturday, then followed with another miraculous grab for an equaliser touchdown. Rodgers launched a desperate pass into the end zone at double-covered Janis, who leaped into the air and pulled down the ball for a stunning TD with no time left on the clock. Kicker Mason Crosby followed with an extra point to level the score at 20-20. Overtime produced drama even before it started as the first attempted coin flip failed, forcing a repeat that ended up giving Arizona the ball and setting up their response to Rodgers’ miracle. Palmer completed 25-of-41 passes for 349 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown pass to Michael Floyd to open the scoring and a 9-yard TD toss to Floyd with  3:44 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Arizona a 17-13 lead. Rodgers, who went 24-for-44 for 261 yards that included an earlier 8-yard touchdown throw to Janis, failed on a fourth-down pass and the Packers surrendered the ball deep in their territory, setting up a Cardinals’ field goal that produced a 20-13 lead and set the stage for the closing spectacle.