The New England Patriots beat the Tennessee Titans 35-14 Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and that means they’ll now play in the AFC Championship game a seventh consecutive time. The Patriots will host the winner of Sunday’s Divisional Round game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday.
The Patriots, who at one time trailed the Titans 7-0 Saturday evening, scored 35 unanswered points for the blowout home win. 21 one of those points came in the second quarter and included quarterback Tom Brady throwing two touchdown passes and running back James White scoring twice.
Brady completed 35 of his 53 total pass attempts for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win and the Patriots registered 438 yards of total offense. Brady, by the way, wasn’t sacked at all by the Titans defense during the game and was even able to exit the game for good late in the fourth quarter.
After a first quarter touchdown pass from Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota to wide receiver Corey Davis put the Tennessee ahead 7-0, the Patriots quickly answered with a 7 play, 73 yard touchdown drive that culminated with Brady throwing a 5-yard touchdown shovel pass to White. The Patriots then proceeded to score touchdowns on their next two possessions and led 21-7 at halftime.
The Titans could not move the football effectively after their first score until very late in garbage time. Mariota finished the game with 22 completions on 37 total attempts for 254 yards and two touchdown passes to Davis, He was sacked 8 times by the Patriots defense Saturday night and the Titans only managed 267 total yards of offense.
A Steelers win over the Jaguars on Sunday will result in a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship which the Patriots won 36-17. A Jaguars win, however, will result in them going to their third AFC Championship game in the history of the franchise. Their last appearance in the AFC Championship game was during the 1999 season and they lost that game to the Titans 33-14.
