Patriots roll past Tennessee
Brady has little problem beating Titans defense
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady passed for three touchdowns and 337 yards, and the New England Patriots cruised past the Tennessee Titans, 35-14, Saturday night at Gillette Stadium to advance to their seventh consecutiveAFC championship.
New England (14-3) will play host to the winner of a divisional matchup Sunday between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Steelers.
It was Brady’s 10th career postseason game with at least three touchdown tosses, moving him past Joe Montana for the most in NFL history.
James White caught a touchdown pass and ran for another, and Danny Amendola had 11 catches for 112 yards.
The Titans (10-8) took an early 7-0 lead, but New England quickly tied the score against Tennessee. Tom Brady threw a short shuttle pass to James White, who ran it in from the 5 to make it 7-7 early in the second quarter.
The Patriots appeared to have a touchdown three plays earlier, when Dion Lewis caught a pass from Brady and was tackled by Wesley Woodyard at the Titans’ 19 yard line.
Lewis landed on top of the defender, then got up and continued to the end zone.
The officials initially ruled that he had never been down and called it a touchdown. But replays showed Lewis’ backside hit the ground at the 19.
Marcus Mariota completed 22 of 37 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns, but was under duress for most of the second half. He was sacked eight times, a Patriots playoff record.
Brady hit Rob Gronkowski for a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to give New England a 35-7 lead against the Titans.
It was Gronkowski’s 10th postseason touchdown He’s tied with five others for third all time. But it’s the most for a tight end.
Gronk also moved into second all time for a tight end with 835 postseason receiving yards.
He passed Keith Jackson, and only Dallas Clark is ahead of him.
The Patriots took a 21-7 lead into halftime against Tennessee, but it could have been worse.
After the Titans went for it on fourth-and-1 from the New England 46 — and lost 5 yards — the Patriots got the ball just over midfield with 17 seconds left.
That was enough for Tom Brady to run three plays. On the third, he hit Danny Amendola for an 11-yard gain in the middle of the field before the receiver went down to kill the clock with 1 second remaining.
But Stephen Gostkowski’s 53-yard field goal attempt was wide left.
It was the only time the Titans stopped the Patriots in the second quarter, when New England rallied from the 7-0 deficit with three touchdowns.