Patriots win, make AFC championship game

FOXBOROROUGH – The New England Patriots gave upstart quarterback Andrew Luck a bit of a lesson Saturday night in playoff football ? and they did it without his counterpart throwing a single touchdown pass.In what has to be a rarity for the Patriots, all five New England touchdowns in a 43-22 win over the Colts came via the ground while Tom Brady did what he used to do in the days when the Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years ? managing the game.?Hopefully we can keep doing it,” said Brady afterward.The trip to the AFC championship game is the team?s eighth in the Brady-Bill Belichick era. The first three results in Super Bowl victories. Two others ended up in Super Bowl losses, and two others (Indianapolis in 2007 and Baltimore last year) resulted in defeats.The Patriots have turned into a rushing machine in the second half of the season ? something that always bodes well in the post-season, when teams often play in cold or inclement climates that aren?t exactly conducive to throwing the ball.Two weeks ago, against the Buffalo Bills, LeGarrette Blount ran for 189 yards. Saturday night, he followed that up with a 166-yard effort, including a 79-yard touchdown run (one of his four) that gave the Patriots some breathing room at a time when the Colts were threatening to tie the game up.?He?s run the ball well for us all year,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick.?He?s big, he?s strong, and you can see when he gets into the other team?s secondary no one wantsto have any part of tackling him,” said guard Logan Mankins, the leader of the line that has spring Blount for many of those gains.?Right now,” Mankins said, “the run game is working, so there?s really no reason to do anything else.”The Patriots got on the board before the fans were even warm in their seats. On Luck?s third play from scrimmage, he threw one that Alfonzo Dennard intercepted and ran back from the Indy 29 to the 2-yard line. Blount bulled his way over on the next play.After the Patriots held the Colts, Brady and Co. came back for more. This time it came as the result of a 10 play, 74-yard drive that culminated in another 2-yard plunge by Blount.Any thoughts of the game being an early blowout were ill-conceived. It only took Luck seven plays, and 2:42, to go 80 yards ? the last 38 of them going to LaVon Brazill for the score.The Pats came back on another 14-play drive, as the running game started to take hold. Once again ? for the third time ? Blount pushed it in from the two.Things got strange after that. The Patriots had to punt on their next possession, but the snap when well over Ryan Allen?s head, and the rookie punter ended up throwing the ball out of the end zone for a safety. Allen got hurt on the play, resulting in his leaving the game with a shoulder injury and making Stephen Gostkowski the punter.?Steve?s punted in practice,” said Belichick.?I thought I did a decent job,” said Gostkowski. “The guys blocked well for me.”In, all Gostkowski punted the ball four times ? three of them pinning the Colts back deep in their own territory.An Adam Vinatieri field goal made it 21-15 at the half, but the Patriots started pulling away in the latter stages of the third quarter and all of the fourth. Shane Ridley scored the first of his two touchdowns with 6:23 left in the third quarter, and then added the two-point conversion to make it a two-touchdown lead. It only took Luck three plays for the Colts to go the 80 yards to make it 29-22, but when Blount broke loose for a 79-yard touchdown run with 13:08 left in the game, it was 36-22, and Luck was forced to throw the ball. He was picked off two more times after that, one of them resulting in Ridley?s second touchdown of the night.In all, the Patriots ran for 234 yards on 46 attempts, to only 69 for the Colts.