The AFC Championship proved that an elite quarterback makes all the difference

Blake Bortles completed 64 percent of his passes for 293 yards in the AFC Championship. Tom Brady completed 68 percent for 290 yards.

Statistically, the difference between the play of the quarterbacks of the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots on Sunday was miniscule.

There’s context that helps explain the similar stats, though. The Jaguars are exceptional defending the pass, Rob Gronkowski suffered a concussion in the second quarter, and the New England defense loaded up to stop running back Leonard Fournette, allowing more room for Bortles to throw.

But altogether, it was a good day for Bortles and it wasn’t the most prolific performance from Brady. In the biggest moments, though, Brady reminded everyone why he’s a future Hall of Famer and why the lack of a franchise quarterback was destined to be the Achilles’ heel of the Jaguars all along.

With just over two minutes left in the first half, the Patriots faced a 14-3 deficit. Without using a timeout, Brady led the Patriots down the field for an 85-yard touchdown drive that took just 67 seconds and pulled New England close before halftime.

The drive was aided by two penalties on the Jaguars — a helmet-to-helmet penalty against Barry Church, and a highly questionable pass interference call on A.J. Bouye. But the flags were thrown because the Patriots took shots downfield.

When the Jaguars were afforded a similar situation on the ensuing possession, the team elected to kneel. Jacksonville had 55 seconds and two timeouts and started on the 25-yard line but decided to play it safe.

The reason was simple: The Jaguars didn’t trust Bortles.

It’s not surprising, given Jacksonville built its entire offensive identity around a Fournette-led ground attack. No team ran more often than the Jaguars, even finishing a game earlier in the year with 19 consecutive running plays against the Steelers.

But the ultra-conservative approach was as safe as any team has played that situation all year:

The Patriots relish the opportunity to drive the field without much time to work with. For the Jaguars, battling the clock for a touchdown drive felt daunting all season and was avoided Sunday.

Against the best pass defense in the NFL, Brady led the Patriots on two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. The latter was capped with a touchdown in the back of the end zone that gave the Patriots a lead with just under three minutes remaining.

It left the Jaguars needing a touchdown drive of their own to take back the lead.

The drive started strong for Bortles but ended after he missed Fournette streaking down the left sideline and was sacked on the next play to push the Jaguars into a third-and-19 situation. A short completion set up a fourth-down pass that was knocked away by Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore:

It wasn’t a bad throw from Bortles, but at the end of the day, one quarterback got it done and the other couldn’t. One has fully earned his team’s faith, and the other wasn’t trusted to keep the pedal to the floor.

Brady — with a lesser defense and lesser rushing attack than Bortles — rose to the occasion and led a team back from a deficit. It was the 11th game-winning drive for Brady in the postseason and the result everyone saw coming, with the Patriots getting the ball in the final minutes.

Even Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack had to tip his hat to Brady doing what he’s done so many times before:

Bortles played fine Sunday. But when the Jaguars needed a quarterback to put the team on his back, they didn’t have one. The Patriots did.

With the victory over the Jaguars, Brady earned an eighth trip to the Super Bowl. No other passer in NFL history has been there more than five times.

It’s nothing new in the AFC, where three quarterbacks — Brady, Peyton Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger — have dominated the field for 17 years:

Over that span, 13 different quarterbacks have started in the Super Bowl for the NFC with Nick Foles now set to be the 14th. Only Eli Manning, Kurt Warner, and Russell Wilson each made two starts.

Maybe in a different era or a different conference, the Jaguars’ construction of a team around a questionable quarterback could’ve resulted in a Super Bowl. It was enough to get by the Roethlisberger-led Steelers in the Divisional Round. It was almost enough to beat the Patriots too.

But Brady is the best quarterback of all time and when the game was on the line, Bortles wasn’t enough for the Jaguars.