FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts (AP) ― Tom Brady’s third touchdown pass gave New England its first lead with about five minutes remaining and the Patriots reached their fourth straight AFC championship game with a 35-31 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.

Justin Tucker had given the Ravens a 31-28 lead on a 25-yard field goal with 10:17 left. Then Brady directed a masterful 74-yard drive. He completed eight of nine passes for 72 yards ― and ran for a first down ― and put the Patriots ahead with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell.

The top-seeded Patriots (13-4) will face the winner of Sunday’s game between the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts in the conference title game next Sunday. The sixth-seeded Ravens (11-7) had won two of three playoff games in Foxborough over the past five seasons.

It was a thrilling game of shifting momentum ― two touchdowns by the Ravens, the next two by the Patriots, two more by the Ravens and another two by the Patriots.

Joe Flacco completed his first eight passes, two for touchdowns of 19 yards to Kamar Aiken and 9 yards to Steve Smith, to give the Ravens a 14-0 lead. Then the Patriots tied it on a 4-yard run by Brady and his 15-yard pass to Danny Amendola late in the first half.

The Patriots were driving again ― until Daryl Smith intercepted Brady’s pass and Flacco capitalized with an 11-yard scoring pass to Owen Daniels with 10 seconds left for a 21-14 halftime lead. 


Seahawks beat Panthers

SEATTLE (AP) ― This time Russell Wilson did it with his arm, passing the Seattle Seahawks into the NFC championship game for the second straight year with a big assist from Kam Chancellor.

The Seahawks are one step closer to defending their Super Bowl title.

Wilson threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns, Chancellor returned an interception 90 yards for a TD midway through the fourth quarter and the Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers 31-17 on Saturday night in an NFC divisional playoff game.

Wilson was nearly flawless in one of the best playoff performances of his young career. He took shots downfield and was hard to stop on third downs.

Wilson threw a 16-yard touchdown to Doug Baldwin in the first quarter, found Jermaine Kearse for a 63-yard TD in the second quarter and capped his night with a 25-yard strike to Luke Willson with 10:26 remaining that gave Seattle a 24-10 lead.

But the capper was still to come, from the most impressive athlete on the field.

Chancellor had wowed everyone by twice jumping over the Carolina offensive line on a pair of Graham Gano field goal attempts at the end of the first half.