It felt scripted, like pro wrestling. As if some writer decided Sunday’s AFC championship game needed a plot-twisting challenge for the Patriots that lived up to last year’s 25-point Super Bowl deficit and comeback.
So Tom Brady’s hand was maimed and bloodied in Wednesday’s practice. His top weapon, larger-than-life Rob Gronkowski, was knocked out in the first half by the menacing Jacksonville defense. Whipping boy Blake Bortles was playing the game of his life and the Jaguars, the once-laughable Jags, were leading the NFL’s bullies by 10 points in the fourth quarter.
The setup was creative and unique, but the ending remained the same – Brady and the Patriots cleared all the crazy hurdles to claim a 24-20 win and another trip to another Super Bowl.
As it turned out, the amazing game needed more than one script writer. It needed an entire team.
“Coach says it’s all about our story and what this team can do. We had to write our own story,” Brady told a buzzing Gillette Stadium during the post-game trophy presentation for the AFC champs. “It took every player that played in the game, every coach that coached, every bit of energy and effort and preparation.”
That includes the Jaguars, who played their role to perfection.
Some critics mocked Jacksonville, suggesting the Patriots should apologize for their easy path to Super Bowl LII in Minnesota on Feb. 4. They were wrong. There was nothing easy about the Jags.
Jacksonville let its defense swagger from the start, winning the coin toss and electing to defer. The Jags invited Brady onto the field first, daring him to score against its top-ranked defense. The Patriots marched on that opening drive, but they had to settle for a field goal, which was all they would get until late in the first half.
The Jaguars’ speed locked down New England receivers – there was no one open deep and no yards after the catch underneath. The vaunted pass rush of “Sacksonville” was in Brady’s face and mind – the 18-year vet was flinching at shadows like a rookie.
On the other side, the Jacksonville coaching staff had a brilliant game plan for Bortles, who was executing it. There was a mix of play calls that kept the Patriots’ defense off-balance and Bortles’s passes safe. There was a lot of bruising running back Leonard Fournette, a lot of short and simple throws and, to the shock of the New England crowd, there was Jacksonville with the ball and a 14-3 lead late in the first half.
Then Bortles and the Jags went back to being Bortles and the Jags.
Jacksonville called a timeout before an important third-and-7 with 23 seconds to go till the two-minute warning left. That’s when Bortles channeled his inner doofus and drew a delay-of-game penalty coming out of the timeout. The Jags stopped the game to make sure no one made a stupid mistake, and then they made a stupid mistake.
The play should have stopped, but the whistles didn’t come soon enough and Bortles actually threw for what would have been a huge first down. Instead, because of the delay penalty, the play didn’t count, the Patriots sacked Bortles for the first time on the replay and the Jags had to punt, giving Brady a chance to score at the end of the first half.
Of course Brady and Co. made the most of it. They went 85 yards in just six plays, quickly slicing Jacksonville’s hard-earned lead to 14-10 only 55 seconds before halftime.
But the comeback couldn’t really start there. That would have been too bland for this script. The writers, and obstacles, were far from done.
Gronkowski was injured on that final drive of the half when Jags safety Barry Church delivered a vicious, but clean, hit to the big tight end’s head. So Brady was deprived of his top target, and then his deficit grew.
Bortles led the Jaguars into New England territory to start the second half, completing his 12th straight pass of the game along the way, the best streak of his career. Eventually, Josh Lambo nailed a 54-yard field goal and the Jags’ lead grew to 17-10 early in the third. And it went to 20-10 when Lambo hit a 48-yarder early in the fourth.
Then, finally, perhaps predictably, the script flipped. Brady directed an 85-yard touchdown march in the middle of the fourth with plenty of help from co-author Danny Amendola. The little receiver, who was supposed to be a fourth option at best on this team behind Gronkowski, Julian Edelman (remember him?) and Brandin Cooks, took center stage in true Patriots “next man up” fashion.
Amendola had an improbable 21-yard catch on third-and-18 to keep the drive alive. He then caught the last two passes of the drive, the final one for a 9-yard touchdown to make it 20-17.
After the surging Patriots defense forced a pair of punts, Amendola returned the second kick 20 yards to the Jacksonville 30 to set up the game-winning drive that proved to be classic Brady. He threw to his running back, Super Bowl hero James White, for 15 yards. He had a 2-yard quarterback sneak for a first down. And he ended it with the go-ahead touchdown to – who else? – Amendola.
That touchdown was the dramatic climax, but there were still some cool Easter-egg moments to be had before the production faded to black. High-priced free agent Stephon Gilmore earned a big chunk of his money with a spectacular pass defended to end Jacksonville’s final drive. And Dion Lewis, who has been so good in the “castoff veteran thrives in New England” role for this team – iced the game with a final first down.
Maybe the script felt over-the-top, or too good to be true, but that’s on brand for this dynasty. The Patriots will now appear in their 10th Super Bowl – the next best franchises have eight. Brady now owns eight conference titles – the next best mark for a quarterback is five. And Belichick also owns eight conference titles – the next best mark for a head coach is six.
If there’s one takeaway from that list of accolades, the closing credits of this picture-perfect script, it’s that “too good to be true” is what these Patriots are.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)