Patriots, Cardinals make finals

WASHINGTON — Defending Super Bowl champion New England snapped Kansas City’s 11-game win streak while Arizona fought off an astonishing Green Bay comeback to advance Saturday in the NFL playoffs. Tom Brady threw for two touchdowns and ran for another to power the Patriots over visiting Kansas City 27-20 while Carson Palmer threw for three touchdowns for his first playoff win in Arizona’s 26-20 home victory over Green Bay. The Patriots will make their fifth consecutive trip to the American Conference finals, playing the winner of Sunday’s Denver-Pittsburgh matchup on Jan. 17 for a berth in Super Bowl 50. Brady matched 1970s Oakland star Kenny Stabler as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to take their teams to five consecutive conference championship games. “It’s pretty cool, pretty cool — it’s hard to do man,” Brady said. “You’ve got to grind throughout the entire year. There’s only four teams playing next weekend and we’re one of them.” The Cardinals, who lost to Pittsburgh seven years ago in their only Super Bowl appearance, reached a National Conference final date with either Carolina or Seattle. Palmer connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a 75-yard pass play to set up a 5-yard “shovel pass” up the middle to Fitzgerald for the winning points after Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers made an amazing 41-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the fourth quarter to force overtime. “We’re a resilient team,” Fitzgerald said. “You just have to keep fighting.” Four-time NFL champion Brady completed 28-of-42 passes for 302 yards, his ninth career playoff 300-yard passing game, matching Peyton Manning for the most in NFL history. Rob Gronkowski’s two touchdown catches gave him eight for his playoff career, the most of any tight end in NFL history. “The chemistry was clicking,” Gronkowski said. The Chiefs closed within the final margin after Charcandrick West scored on a 1-yard run with 73 seconds remaining. Gronkowski recovered Kansas City’s onside kick attempt and the Patriots ran the final seconds off the clock. The Chiefs were thwarted in their bid to reach the conference final for the first time since 1993. It was in last year’s conference final that controversy erupted over the Patriots using under-inflated footballs, one that led the NFL to issue Brady a four-game suspension only to have the superstar quarterback take the issue to federal court. A judge threw out Brady’s suspension, citing a lack of fair due process, and the NFL has appealed that decision, a hearing set for after next month’s Super Bowl so it will have no impact on New England’s title repeat quest. In Arizona, The Packers lost despite a stunning effort by Rodgers with a seldom used supporting cast of fill-in receivers playing due to injuries. Jeff Janis, who had only four career catches before Saturday, caught seven passes for 145 yards, including the desperation tying TD throw from Rodgers and another stunning 60-yard pass on fourth down to sustain the scoring drive. Palmer completed 25-of-41 passes for 349 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown pass to Michael Floyd to open the scoring and a 9-yard TD toss to Floyd with 3:44 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Arizona a 17-13 lead. Rodgers, who went 24-for-44 for 261 yards that included an earlier 8-yard touchdown throw to Janis, failed on a fourth-down pass and the Packers surrendered the ball deep in their territory, setting up a Cardinals’ field goal that produced a 20-13 lead and set the stage for the closing spectacle. — AFP