Patriots edge Ravens for AFC title

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady got all the help he needed to get the New England Patriots into the Super Bowl. Thank you, Billy Cundiff. The Baltimore Ravens kicker shanked a 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds left and the Patriots escaped with a 23-20 victory in the AFC championship game on Sunday. Usually, vintage Brady doesn’t need much assistance in championship settings, but the Patriots much-maligned defense came through, and Brady’s 1-yard touchdown dive with 11:29 left proved to be the winning points.  “Well, I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us,” Brady said after throwing for 239 yards, with two interceptions and, for the first time in 36 games, no TD passes. “I’m going to try to go out and do a better job in a couple of weeks, but I’m proud of this team, my teammates.” Brady waited out the final tense minutes on the sideline, and then celebrated with his team when Cundiff’s attempt went wide left. The Ravens looked on in stunned horror. Cundiff had no excuse. “It’s a kick I’ve kicked probably a thousand times in my career,” Cundiff said. “I went out there and didn’t convert.” Next up as the Patriots (15-3) chase their fourth Super Bowl trophy (2001, ’03 and ‘04) in Brady’s and coach Bill Belichick’s tenure in New England is the New York Giants. The Super Bowl is Sunday Feb. 5 in Indianapolis. Four years ago in their last trip to the big game, the Patriots had an 18-0 record when they were stunned by the Giants. This time, they head to the Super Bowl on a 10-game win streak in which their last lost was Week 9 against the Giants. Before Cundiff missed, the Ravens had a chance to go ahead two plays earlier, but wide receiver Lee Evans was stripped of the ball in the end zone by backup cornerback Sterling Moore, who earlier was victimized for a touchdown that gave Baltimore (13-5) the lead 17-16. On his touchdown, Brady took a huge hit from Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis, then emphatically spiked the ball as he walked away. Earlier, Brady showed his fire by barking at Lewis following a hard tackle on a 4-yard run. “It’s a pretty mentally tough team,” said Brady, whose fifth trip to the Super Bowl will equal John Elway’s achievement with Denver. “There’s really some resiliency. We’ve shown that all season. Even in the games we’ve lost, the three games we lost, we fought until the end. We’re always going to fight to the end. It’s great to be a part of a team like this.” Baltimore had the touted defense in this matchup, but New England’s unit, ranked 31st overall, was just as powerful. “We stepped up,” Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. “We all stepped up big time. Being in this situation is a great moment. You have to cherish this moment.” The Patriots shut down Ray Rice, the league’s total yardage leader, who was limited to 78 yards. Brandon Spikes made a fourth-quarter interception of Joe Flacco, who played well before that and threw for two touchdowns. And when the Ravens were threatening to score a late touchdown to win their first conference title in 11 years, New England clamped down. “It’s two great football teams, two gladiators, I guess, just kind of going at each other at the end, and I’m proud of our guys,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “You know, we’ve got 53 guys, mighty men, as we like to call them – and they fought, and we came up a little bit short, as 53. You know, 53 win and 53 lose.” With Rice a nonfactor, Baltimore had to rely on Flacco, and he delivered one of his best performances. Flacco has led the Ravens into the playoffs in all four of his pro seasons, but not to the Super Bowl. He was 22 for 36 for 306 yards and touchdowns of 6 yards to Dennis Pitta and 29 to rookie Torrey Smith. The loss hardly could be blamed on Flacco. “I don’t know if I ever will prove anything,” he said. “I just play the same way. We lost; someone has to. But we laid it all out on the field.” Operating against a porous secondary missing its top cornerback, Kyle Arrington, who left in the second quarter with an eye injury, Flacco gave Baltimore its first lead. His short pass on third down to explosive receiver Smith turned into a 29-yard scamper down the right sideline after Moore completely whiffed on the tackle. Danny Woodhead’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff set up Baltimore at the Patriots 28, but a third-down sack forced Cundiff to kick a 39-yard field goal, making it 20-16. The Pats didn’t flinch. Brady took the Patriots 63 yards in 11 plays, and seemed to score on a 1-yard run. The call was overruled by replay, though, and on fourth-down, he dived just high enough over the line for the winning points. Defense was particularly dominant early on. The Patriots held Baltimore to minus-4 yards on its first three first-down runs and forced the Ravens to go three-and-out each time. Meanwhile, the Patriots put together a methodical 13-play, 50-yard drive helped greatly by an illegal contact penalty on Lardarius Webb that negated a tipped interception by Bernard Pollard. But Brady was sacked for the first time by Paul Kruger and Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 29-yard field goal. Late in the first quarter, the Ravens changed tactics after Webb picked off a pass intended for Julian Edelman at the Baltimore 30. Flacco rolled right on first down and threw deep down the sideline to a wide-open Smith. Had the pass not been short, Smith likely would have sprinted into the end zone. Instead, it was a 42-yard gain, not bad at all given Baltimore’s previous ineptitude with the ball. Cundiff’s 20-yard field goal momentarily tied it.  Patriots 23, Ravens 20  Baltimore 0 10 10 0 — 20 New England 3 10 3 7 — 23  NE—FG Gostkowski 29 Bal—FG Cundiff 20. NE—Green-Ellis 7 run (Gostkowski kick) Bal—Pitta 6 pass from Flacco (Cundiff kick) NE—FG Gostkowski 35 NE—FG Gostkowski 24 Bal—T.Smith 29 pass from Flacco (Cundiff kick) Bal—FG Cundiff 39 NE—Brady 1 run (Gostkowski kick) A—68,756. Bal NE First downs 19 25 Total Net Yards 398 330 Rushes-yards 31-116 31-96 Passing 282 234 Punt Returns 1-4 3-7 Kickoff Returns 1-20 3-101 Interceptions Ret. 2-39 1-19 Comp-Att-Int 22-36-1 22-36-2 Sacked-Yards Lost 3-24 1-5 Punts 4-43.8 2-48.5 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-1 Penalties-Yards 6-33 1-5 Time of Poss. 33:33 26:27  INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—Baltimore, Rice 21-67, Flacco 4-27, R.Williams 6-22. New England, Green-Ellis 15-68, Woodhead 6-18, Hernandez 3-9, Brady 6-2, Edelman 1-(minus 1). PASSING—Baltimore, Flacco 22-36-1-306. New England, Brady 22-36-2-239. RECEIVING—Baltimore, Boldin 6-101, Pitta 5-41, T.Smith 3-82, Evans 3-39, Dickson 2-23, Leach 2-9, Rice 1-11. New England, Hernandez 7-66, Welker 6-53, Gronkowski 5-87, Branch 2-18, Edelman 1-8, Woodhead 1-7. MISSED FIELD GOALS—Baltimore, Cundiff 32 (WL).