FOXBORO – The Patriots were less than five minutes away from their season being over. Their backs were against the wall. Not only did Tom Brady have a stitched up right hand, but Rob Gronkowski was out of the game with a head injury.

The Patriots took their hits this season, but kept trucking along. For a moment, it looked this adversity was too much to overcome.

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Mark Daniels

The Patriots took their hits this season, but kept trucking along. For a moment, it looked this adversity was too much to overcome.

As it turns out, it wasn’t.

In a season marred by injuries, the Patriots team health went from bad to worse as Gronkowski was knocked out of Sunday’s AFC Championship with the Jacksonville Jaguars. As we’ve seen time and time again, you can’t count Brady out. Not even with a bloody stitched up right hand.

In a career defined by fourth quarter comebacks, he did it again.

Brady orchestrated yet another fourth-quarter comeback to lead the Patriots, sans Gronk, to a 24-20 win over the Jaguars to earn a trip to Super Bowl LII. The quarterback hit Danny Amendola with a game-winning touchdown with 2:48 seconds left after trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter.

The turn of events were stunning.

Following a Dion Lewis fumble, the Patriots defense held the Jaguars to a three-and-out. Down 20-10, Brady and his men showed signs of life, putting together a touchdown drive. Brady made multiple big throws, including hitting Danny Amendola for 21 yards on third-and-18. The next play, he connected with Phillip Dorsett on a flea flicker for a gain of 31. Three plays later, Brady and Amendola connected for a 9-yard touchdown.

With 8:44 left in the game, the Patriots trailed, 20-17. The defense continued to play the part, giving Brady the ball back with 6:21 left in the game. On the first play, Cooks drew a 36-yard pass interference penalty, pushing the Pats to the Jaguars 45. Three incomplete passes in a row, however, followed and the Jaguars got the ball back with 5:53 remaining.

Following another defensive stand, Amendola took a punt return 20 yards to the Jacksonville 30-yard line. Brady, with 4:58 left, hit White for a 15-yard gain, at the 15-yard line. The quarterback then connected with Amendola for an 8-yard gain at the 7-yard line. A Brady sneak set up a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line with 3:43 left.

Two plays later, Brady hit Amendola for a 4-yard touchdown

The Patriots defense stopped the Jaguars on the ensuing drive to help the Patriots capture their second-straight conference title.

Brady came out firing, Sunday. His second pass of the game went for a gain of 31 to Brandin Cooks. Later in the opening drive, Brady hit Amendola for 20 yards on a fourth-and-1 play. That set up a Stephen Gostkowski 31-yard field goal and the Pats had a 3-0 lead at 9:21 of the first quarter.

The Patriots defense held strong on the Jaguars first drive, but the Jacksonville defense did the same holding the Patriots to a quick punt on their second series. That’s when Blake Bortles and his group started to slowly claw away at the Patriots, who started to break down and lose the lead.

Bortles hit a wide-open Corey Grant for a gain of 24 to set up a first-and-goal from the 4-yard line. On the next play, Bortles hit an open Marcedes Lewis for a 4-yard touchdown at 14:15 of the second quarter. The momentum carried over to the Jags defense as Brady & Co. were held to a quick three-and-out on the next series. After going 7-7 in the first quarter, Brady went 1-6 to start the second quarter.

On the next Jacksonville series, Bortles orchestrated a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive to give the Jaguars a 14-3 lead over the Patriots. Leonard Fournette easily scored a 4-yard touchdown at 7:06 of the second quarter.

Thing didn’t look much better on offense. The next drive resulted in a punt in five plays after Brady was sacked on third down by Dante Fowler Jr. as the crowd in Gillette Stadium began to quiet. The Patriots defense forced a punt to give Brady the ball back with a little over two minutes left in the first half as the crowd chanted their quarterback’s name.

Brady and the offense turned on the Jets to score their first touchdown of the game and close the gap, 14-10. The bad news was that Gronkowski left the game after being on the receiving end of a helmet-to-helmet hit by Barry Church. The penalty gave the Pats 15 yards and on the next play, the Jags were whistled for a 32-yard pass inference penalty.

Two plays later, with 55 seconds left in the first half, James White scored a 1-yard touchdown run.

The Jags opened the second half with a 54-yard field goal by Josh Lambo to extend their lead to 17-10 and then 20-10 at 14:52 of the fourth quarter.

On the next Patriots series, with the offense threatening, Dion Lewis fumbled on a double pass play. Brady hit Amendola, who passed to Lewis for a gain of 20. Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack forced and recovered the fumble to give Jacksonville the ball back.

Things looked hopeless after that.

Tom Brady had other ideas.