Tom Brady punches Patriots' ticket to Super Bowl with magical 4th quarter
With nine minutes left in Sunday's AFC Championship game, the odds were stacked against Tom Brady, and apparently, that's the way he likes it.
For an NFL-record 11th time in his career, Brady engineered a fourth-quarterback comeback in the playoffs, and like the 10 that came before, this was pure Brady magic. This time around Brady found himself in a nearly impossible situation: The Patriots were down two scores (20-10), he didn't have Rob Gronkowski and he was going up against the No. 1 pass defense in the NFL.
None of that seemed to faze Brady, though.
The Patriots quarterback brought his team back in the game with an 85-yard drive that cut the Jaguars' lead to 20-17. One of the biggest plays on the drive came on first-and-10 when Brady connected with Phillip Dorsett for 31 yards on a flea flicker.
The play that helped setup the @Patriots TD...
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2018
FLEA FLICKER! #JAXvsNE #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/LwAmTBjdvf
Three plays later, the Patriots punched the ball into the end zone when Brady found Danny Amendola for a 9-yard touchdown.
After trading punts with Jaguars, the Patriots got the ball back, and once again, Brady went to work. With the Patriots trailing 20-17 and sitting at the Jaguars' 30-yard line after an impressive punt return from Amendola, Brady worked his magic again.
With only 4:58 left to play, Brady basically willed the Patriots to the Super Bowl by accounting for 29 of the New England's 30 yards on their game-winning drive. Not only did he go 3 for 3 for 27 yards, but he also called his own number on a quarterback sneak that went for two yards and set up the Patriots with a first down at Jacksonville's 5-yard line.
Brady then capped the drive with one of the best 5-yard touchdown passes that you'll ever see.
This story originally appeared on CBSSports.com, titled: WATCH: Tom Brady punches Patriots' ticket to Super Bowl with magical fourth quarter