A milestone performance from quarterback Tom Brady lifted the New England Patriots to a 35-31 come-from-behind victory over Baltimore in the National Football League playoffs.
Brady threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns, the last a go-ahead 23-yard strike to Brandon LaFell with five minutes remaining, sealing the victory in the American Football Conference second-round game.
The throw gave the Patriots their first lead of the game, and with it Brady passed Joe Montana for the most post-season touchdown passes. It was his 46th.
“It’s pretty special,” said Brady, who was a fan of Montana and the San Francisco 49ers growing up.
Brady had tied Montana’s mark with a five-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski in the third quarter.
Brady’s yardage total and 33 completions in 50 passing attempts both broke his own club records for a playoff game.
The three-time Super Bowl winner also ran for a touchdown, a four-yard dash in the opening quarter.
The top-seeded Patriots advanced to their fourth straight AFC Championship game, where they’ll face the winner of Sunday’s Indianapolis-Denver clash for a berth in the Super Bowl.
The fourth post-season meeting in six years between New England and Baltimore was a game of massive momentum shifts that saw the Patriots become the first team in NFL playoff history to twice rally from 14 points down and win.
The Ravens, seeded sixth, took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter only for New England to respond, then led 28-14 in the third.
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco completed 28 of 45 passes for 292 yards and a career playoff-best four touchdowns.
However, Flacco’s second interception of the game virtually ended Baltimore’s hopes with 1:39 remaining.
“I don’t think we played as well as we would’ve liked,” said Brady, who completed eight of nine passes for 72 yards on the game-winning drive. “We showed a lot of toughness coming back from those two deficits.”
Danny Amendola finished with a pair of touchdown grabs for the Patriots, including a 51-yard catch from wide receiver Julian Edelman on a trick play in the third quarter.
With the ball at the New England 49-yard line, Brady tossed a lateral to Edelman, who lofted a pass to a wide-open Amendola to tie the score at 28.
“We’ve had (the trick play) in for 10 weeks, and the coaches finally got to call it,” Edelman said. “I had to loosen up the arm a little bit.”
Baltimore edged back ahead with a field goal by Justin Tucker, but their inability to get a touchdown left Brady an opening.
“We had two separate 14-point leads,” Flacco said.
“Those guys did a good job getting it back to seven (points) as quickly as they could. They don’t panic.”