The reigning Super Bowl champion Patriots face the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium.
A year ago, the Patriots won one for the thumb.
This year, they’ll try to win one despite the thumb.
After life, as we know it, in New England stopped at midweek when quarterback Tom Brady injured his right thumb at practice on Wednesday, a return to normalcy on Sunday: The Patriots will participate in their seventh consecutive AFC Championship Game.
Winners of only three games last season, the upstart Jaguars will provide the opposition, seeking their first- ever Super Bowl berth when they play the five-time (and reigning) champion Patriots at Gillette Stadium at 3:05.
“It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a great challenge for us. We understand how great of a team New England is and how much of a challenge all three phases are going to be faced with,” Doug Marrone, the Jaguars’ first-year head coach, said. “So it’s going to be difficult and we understand that.”
Among the matchups, a Patriots offense led by Brady (although officially listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report, we’re talking about a guy who hasn’t missed a game due to injury since 2008) that ranked first overall in total yards, second in passing and 10th in running the ball during the regular season vs. a Jaguars defense that ranked second in total defense, first against the pass (and, led by Calais Campbell’s 14, second in sacks to Pittsburgh’s 56 with 55) and 21st in defending the run.
On the flip side, the Jaguars offense ranked sixth in total yards with quarterback Blake Bortles managing the game, 17th in passing and first in running the ball during the regular season (rookie Leonard Fournette ran for 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns) versus a Patriots defense that ranked 29th in total defense, 30th against the pass and 20th in defending the run.
Getting to the bottom line, the Patriots were second in points scored during the regular season, the Jaguars second in fewest points allowed.
On the flip side there, the Jaguars, aided by a defense that scored seven touchdowns (an eighth came in last Sunday’s 45-42 win over the Steelers in the divisional round when linebacker Telvin Smith scooped up a fumble and ran 50 yards), were fifth in points scored during the regular season, the Patriots fifth in fewest points allowed.
The top seed in the AFC, the Patriots rode a first-round bye and a 35-14 rout of the Tennessee Titans in Foxboro to this, another appearance in the AFC Championship Game.
The Jaguars’ road was literally more difficult, the AFC’s third-seeded team defeating Buffalo, 10-3, in an ugly wild-card matchup at home be fore upsetting the second-seeded Steelers in Pittsburgh a week ago. That’s put them in their third conference championship game in the 23- season history of the franchise (they’re winless in their previous two, one at the stadium next door when the Tom Coughlin-coached Jaguars drop ping a 20-6 decision to Bill Parcells’ Patriots on Jan. 12, 1997).
None of that matters now, though.
It’s down to two teams in the AFC who are one win away from Super Bowl LII.
“This,” Patriots offensive tackle Nate Solder said, “is what we all play for.”
Glen Farley may be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.