Next week? An ace, 3 wild cards
NEW YORK — Watch out, New England. Here comes Sacksonville.
Get ready, Philly. The Vikings are sailing into town.
Tom Brady and the big game-tested Patriots will square off against the sack-happy Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game in Foxborough, Mass. — with the winner headed to the Super Bowl.
“It’s been an awesome year,” Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles said, “and we want to keep it going.”
In the NFC, Nick Foles and the resilient Philadelphia Eagles host Case Keenum and the surprising Minnesota Vikings — in a matchup of teams that overcame losing their starting quarterbacks.
“They count us out all the time,” said Minnesota’s Stefon Diggs, whose 61-yard touchdown catch as time expired Sunday gave the Vikings a stunning 29-24 victory over New Orleans. “Nobody thinking we can do it. This game was over. I don’t stop playing till the clock hit zero. That’s it.”
Being here is nothing new, of course, for New England, which has made it to the AFC title game for seven straight seasons and advanced to the Super Bowl in three of the previous six.
For Jacksonville, however, this is all rare territory. The Jaguars are playing in the conference title game for just the third time in franchise history, and first since losing to Tennessee during the 1999 season. Jacksonville is also one of four franchises to never play in the Super Bowl, along with the Texans, Browns and Lions.
“I’m sure there will still be tons of people that are going to disapprove or talk negative or hate or do whatever they want,” Bortles said. “But we get to keep playing.”
After a few ho-hum games, Bortles, running back Leonard Fournette and the Jaguars’ offense showed it isn’t too shabby, either, outslugging Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers 45-42 on Sunday.
“Obviously, with what they have on their side of the ball, it’s a good team and we know they’ve got a good offense,” Bortles said. “We knew we had to keep scoring.”
There’s also this neat nugget: Jacksonville’s first AFC title game appearance came in the 1996 season — against New England, which went on to play in the Super Bowl under thencoach Bill Parcells and lost to the Brett Favre-led Green Bay Packers.
“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,” Brady said.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia is playing for the NFC title for the 11th time, but hasn’t won it since the 2004 season — when the Eagles went on to lose to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
The Eagles used steady play by Foles and a late goal-line stand to beat the Atlanta Falcons 15-10 on Saturday. It set up Philadelphia’s first conference championship appearance since the 2008 season.
And it comes despite the Eagles losing starting quarterback Carson Wentz, a leading MVP contender, to a seasonending knee injury last month.
“Our team never wavered, defense did an amazing job, special teams,” Foles said. “That’s just been the story this year is that we just all stuck together.”
The same can be said of the Vikings, who entered the season with Sam Bradford as their quarterback and had big playoff hopes. But he went down with a knee injury after the first week — and it appeared Minnesota’s dreams might be dashed.
Enter Keenum, an unheralded and undrafted backup who ended up having the best season of his career.
And now, the Vikings, Eagles, Patriots and Jaguars are all one win away from the Super Bowl.