AFC-Championship-Bound Patriots Gallop Over Colts

Good evening Patriots fans! I think most of you will read this in the morning when you wake up but if you’re reading this now, thanks for staying up! I hope you all watched the New England Patriots take it to the Indianapolis Colts in front of a sold out Gillette Stadium on a warm and rainy Saturday evening. With the win, our Pats have now advanced to their 3^rd consecutive AFC Championship!

Indianapolis won the toss, but elected to receive. It didn’t go well for them as Andrew Luck threw an interception to Alfonzo Dennard, who ran it all the way to the 1 yard line. LeGarrette Blount finished the job with a touchdown run. New England drove down the field on their next possession and finished the drive the same way as they finished the previous one, a rushing touchdown by Blount. But it didn’t take the Colts to respond back. They only needed a handful to get on the board. Luck found LaVon Brazill (is he Brazilian?) 38 yards down the field for the touchdown. But the Patriots drove down the field later and Blount leaped into the endzone for his 3^rd touchdown! It seemed like New England was going to lose this lead since Indianapolis was making positive yards. But the defense held on and forced Adam Vinatieri to kick a 36 yard field goal. A bad snap on a punt got away from Ryan Allen. Not sure what he was doing but he retreated and got the ball back but was soon tackled by a bunch of Colts, forcing the ball to come out of his hand. The ball would be forced out of bounds but a safety was awarded to Indianapolis. On the ensuing free kick from Allen, he wound up injuring his arm (how the hell does that happen?) and Stephen Gostkowski took over for him (Tom Brady would be Allen’s replacement for placekick holds). The Colts drove down the field at the end of the half but Luck’s pass to a receiver went off the receiver’s body and right into Dont’a Hightower’s hands. That would be it for the first half, with New England leading 21-12, but I was very upset.

Knowing the Patriots needed to respond with a better effort, I thought they would considering they started off with the ball. But nah, they decided to go 3 and out but Indianapolis only responded with another Vinatieri field goal from 21 yards out. Finally, New England woke up. Brady bombed a ball deep to Danny Amendola, which got them in Colts territory.  If anyone wanted to know, this game put Brady over 6000 postseason passing yards, so congrats to him! They culminated the drive by another rushing touchdown, this time from Stevan Ridley. Ridley got the ball again on the successful 2-point conversion. The Colts responded 3 plays later, one of them being another Luck-to-Brazill touchdown. But the Patriots had the perfect answer to that? Who other than Blount to put the dagger in the hearts of all Colts fans?! His 73 yard touchdown run really gave the Patriots defense momentum, and we saw that with Jamie Collins picking off Luck. The pick lead to Ridley rushing for another touchdown, and the rout was now on. The Pats ate up a lot of clock later and could have went for the 44 yard field goal, but they opted to go for the punt to avoid running up the score. The Colts season would finish with Luck throwing his 4^th and final pick, this one to Dennard. Brady would take a knee and that would be all! The final score: Indianapolis Colts 22  New England Patriots 43!

As I said before, the Pats are now in the AFC Championship for the 10^th time in franchise history and their 8^th in 13 seasons! We do not know who the Patriots will play. If San Diego wins, the game will be in New England. If Denver wins, tonight was the last Patriots home game of the season since the Broncos have home field advantage. Either way, tonight is our night. Enjoy it guys and as always, let’s go Patriots!