AFC Championship Game What To Look For – A Look Back

RETURN ENGAGEMENT: BALTIMORE earned a 28-13 victory in the AFC Championship Game at New England, a rematch of a last year’s AFC Championship Game and a Week 3 Ravens’ home win (31-30). It marked the 11th time in 16 opportunities since 1990 that a team won the AFC Championship Game against an opponent it defeated in the regular season.

AFC Championship Games that were rematches of regular-season meetings since 1990:

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HOME AND AWAY: BALTIMORE (9-5, .643), which advanced to the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history (Super Bowl XXXV), improved its NFL-best postseason road winning percentage (minimum 10 games) with a victory at New England.

The teams with the highest road winning percentages all-time in the playoffs (minimum 10 games):

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BRADY BUNCH OF RECORDS: On Sunday, New England quarterback TOM BRADY passed for 320 yards, his sixth career 300-yard passing game in the playoffs. Only PEYTON MANNING (eight) has more 300-yard passing games than Brady in postseason history (Pro Football Hall of Famer JOE MONTANA, six; KURT WARNER, six).

Brady (5,949) surpassed Manning (5,679), Montana (5,772) and BRETT FAVRE (5,855) for the most postseason passing yards in league annals.

The quarterbacks with the most passing yards in playoff history:

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A VALUABLE MATCH-UP: The 2012 AFC Championship Game marked the second time in NFL history a Super Bowl MVP quarterback (TOM BRADY, XXXVIII and XXXVI) and MVP linebacker (RAY LEWIS, XXXV) played each other in a Conference Championship Game. The only other occurrence was when the two players faced off in last year’s AFC Championship Game.

On two previous occasions, Super Bowl offensive and defensive MVPs other than a quarterback and linebacker have met in a conference championship game or Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XIII (1979), Pro Football Hall of Famer RANDY WHITE (XII) and HARVEY MARTIN (XII) of the Dallas Cowboys matched up against Pro Football Hall of Famers FRANCO HARRIS (IX) and LYNN SWANN (X) of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the 2009 AFC Championship Game, Lewis competed against HINES WARD (XL) of the Steelers.