Gamers Make

FOXBOROUGH, Ma s.**-- Notonce but twice the Gillette Stadium crowd went silent. This is what happens when your team goes to four consecutive AFC Championship Games, as the are about to do. You expect something more than two 14-point deficits, more than your quarterback sitting on the bench with his head in his hands, more than the defense being gashed. What the fans, perhaps distracted by the bitter cold they were sitting in, forgot was that those things would undermine other teams beyond the point of recovery. Because other teams don't unveil double pa ses -- executed by , the former three-year collegiate starting quarterback who is now one of 's favorite receivers -- that had been in the game plan all year, just waiting to be sprung when a favorable defense was called.Other teams by using just four offensive linemen for a series -- which sent Coach , screaming his demand that the be allowed Max Scherzer Jersey to substitute after officials ran through who was an ineligible receiver. Harbaugh later implied the deployment of personnel was improper, saying he expected the league to look at it. That elicited a comment from Brady that perhaps the have to study the rulebook to figure it out."We obviously knew what we were doing," Brady said. The almost always do. Other teams don't have a quarterback like Brady, who can recover from a miserable interception, to throw a magnificent in the back left corner to to give New England its first lead of the AFC Divisional game over the with just 5:13 remaining. Other teams don't intercept in the playoffs -- at least not any other team since 2011 -- until the did it twice, including on the pa s that all but ended the game, when picked him off in the end zone. The did all of that Saturday -- the gorgeous and the unsightly -- in a that, aside from becoming an instant cla sic, probably made one point more than any other: The , Miguel Montero Jersey with a remarkable show of resilience, just survived what will likely be the toughest test they will face on their way to the , outmuscling and outhustling the most physically imposing team remaining in the AFC field.The ' offensive and defensive lines blew the off the ball for much of the game. Flacco was not sacked and was rarely under dure s. The abandoned the run completely in the second half, and then went to a quick pa sing game to keep the pa s rush at bay. Whether the or the prevail Sunday to set up the meeting with the next weekend, both teams should know this -- the Aaron Barrett Jersey recognized they survived a mistake-riddled game to advance. "I'm not disappointed -- you kidding me?" Belichick said, before adding. "Down by 14 points twice -- I don't think that's a formula to win a lot of playoff games."Well, no. And that was the takeaway from the , who never celebrate even the most scintillating victories unle s they come in the correct venue -- read: the . Brady has now made it to nine AFC Championship Games in the 13 seasons he has played, in a remarkable run of consistency that has practically numbed everyone to the ' accomplishments; but that also renders even victories like this something of afterthoughts and allows the to recognize flaws in their performance that the scoreboard can't hide. This was, for the , a predictably difficult test from a team that historically gives them fits. But to read New England's mood, it was merely a stepping stone, a dramatic one for sure, but just another playoff game it had to get through. Belichick said he liked this team's resilience, something which it first had to display early this season, when the offensive line was a jumble and New England started 2-2. Daniel Murphy Jersey The seeming inevitability of the ' appearance in another AFC Championship didn't really take form until about two months ago. But to witne s them pulling more ways to win out of their bag of tricks -- remember the time (inactive Sunday) saved the season? -- is to be reminded that you can usually skip right over the regular-season angst with the and meet up with them some time in January when their real season starts. , the defensive tackle who has been through a few of these now, practically shrugged when asked about the overall play of the team. "It's the playoffs," he said. "Every game is going to be a tough game. I think tonight we showed just how tough this team really is. In a playoff game, being down 14-0, rallying with each other, making plays when we needed the plays."It is hard to imagine that either the or the can give the more of a fight than the did. Neither is built to play the bruising style that the do and neither has the ' track record of succe s in Foxborough, robbing them of the ' sense that there is no reason to be Daniel Hudson Jersey intimidated here. That, of course, suggests that the will get another crack at another . That would presumably finally raise the temperature of the team. And maybe it would serve as a reminder to all of us -- the fans who always expect things to go smoothly because they almost always do, the pundits who find holes in even the most airtight mental toughne s -- that the do things differently. It may not always look good. But they'll wait to judge the result until they see where the games end. And 14-point deficits don't mean the end."We needed a lot of plays," Brady said. "We played from behind, which is not the way that we want to play. Playing these guys from ahead was the best way to play them -- and behind twice by 14 wasn't nece sarily in the plans. It took a lot of good execution to overcome it. A lot of guys fought through -- a lot of mental toughne s."Follow Judy Battista on Twitter .