FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — While Peyton Manning was suffering his ninth career one-and-done playoff loss to ruin the stage that was being set for an AFC Championship Game rematch for Brady vs. Manning XVII, Tom Brady was leading and willing the New England Patriots to a gritty comeback victory over the Ravens, 35-31, to advance to his ninth career conference title game.

That sets the stage for an intriguing battle between the upstart Indianapolis Colts and measuring stick Patriots on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. It also features the fourth-career meeting for young gun Andrew Luck with head coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots, the previous three having ended in blowout losses for Indianapolis.

So the aging legend Brady won’t be able to extend his documentary-worthy career-long rivalry with fellow future Hall of Famer Manning, but he will get a chance to span the generations as he looks to reach his sixth Super Bowl with a victory on a weekend in which the other three quarterbacks still playing — Luck, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers — represent the new age, athletic passer.

Brady gets the chance to once again push Father Time off thanks to a performance in beating Baltimore in which he completed 33 of 50 throws for 367 yards with three touchdowns, one interception and a rushing score to put up a 99.3 rating while leading New England back from two 14-point deficits and the greatest postseason comeback in franchise history.

It took the help of some trick plays and good fortune, but Brady is back in the title game for the fourth straight year, fighting to get back to the big game yet again and pursue that elusive fourth Lombardi Trophy.

“That’s what you play for,” Belichick said of competing for another conference title. “You play to win your division, you play to be in the postseason and then you play to be in the AFC Championship Game and see what happens after that. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what you work all year for, is to get to this point. Thankfully we’ll be playing next week. We’ve had Tom through all those that I’ve been here. Again, it’s great to have him and his ability and his poise and presence as our quarterback and obviously he’s done a tremendous job (against the Ravens) and through all those years.”

That results in meeting a Colts team that not only upset the Broncos to advance to Luck’s first AFC title game in just his third season, but also a rematch of a game from earlier this year. The Patriots went into Indianapolis and blew the Colts out by a 43-20 margin. Jonas Gray ran for 201 yards and four scores in that game, in stark contrast to a Patriots team that didn’t hand the ball to a running back once in the second half of the win over the Ravens.

New England isn’t the same team that beat the Colts in the midst of its dominant seven-game winning streak during the heart of the regular season. Nor, are the Colts seen as the same pushover team that’s lost by 35, 21 and 22 points in their last three contests with the Patriots.

“We are looking to try to put together our best game of the year against these guys coming up on Sunday,” Brady said in his weekly Monday morning radio interview on WEEI in Boston. “We ran the ball pretty good against (them) last time obviously, and we are going to need to be balanced and run it and throw it this weekend.”

It may be the ninth title game for Brady, Belichick and the Patriots, but it’s still a special opportunity that no one in Foxborough will take for granted.

“You work all year to get to this point,” Brady said. “Last year we got to this point and didn’t play our best game on the road at Denver and you have to work a year and put everything in to get back to it. We’ve done that.”

–Brady continues to churn out records and impressive numbers at the age of 37 while preparing for his ninth AFC Championship Game in his 13 seasons as the healthy starter for the Patriots, as well as New England’s fourth straight trip to the conference title game.

In Saturday’s win over a game Ravens defense, Brady put forth one of his most gritty, impressive performances in years. Along the way he threw his 46th career postseason touchdown pass, moving past boyhood idol Joe Montana for the NFL record. Brady is also the all-time leader in postseason completions, while he built on his own NFL records with his 19th career playoff victory in his 27th postseason start. Maybe most surprisingly, his rushing score against the Ravens was the fifth of his postseason career, matching Curtis Martin’s franchise record.

Passing Montana for any record, especially a postseason mark, is a big deal and even the normally reserved Belichick acknowledged the accomplishment.

“He deserves it,” Belichick said of the postseason record for touchdown passes. “Tom’s a great, clutch player with tremendous poise, vision, accuracy. So, he’s done it with a lot of different receivers, a lot of different situations against a lot of different defenses. I think that speaks to his greatness and his ability to perform consistently under pressure. No quarterback I’d rather have than Tom Brady.”

REPORT CARD VS. RAVENS

–PASSING OFFENSE: A-minus – The Patriots once again had one of the NFL’s best passing attacks during the regular season, but at times that aerial assault wilted in the face of pressure. That was by no means the case against a deep, physical Ravens pass rush. Tom Brady was hit hard and hit often against Baltimore, but that did little to stop No. 12 from putting forth one of the more gritty, impressive performances of his illustrious postseason career. Brady completed 33 of his 50 throws for 367 yards with three touchdowns and one interception for a 99.3 rating. Though he was sacked twice and hit nine times, he took the pounding in stride and continued to make plays. He also did so without even a hint of a running game. Brady spread the ball to seven different targets with Julian Edelman notching a game-high eight catches for 74 yards. TE Rob Gronkowski had a game-high 108 yards on his seven grabs with one touchdowns, as well as a key 46-yarder down the left seam to ignite the Patriots’ offense that trailed by two scores in the first quarter. Trick plays also worked in the passing game, including three completions on a look with just four linemen on the field and a double-pass from Edelman to Danny Amendola for a 51-yard touchdown. Amendola also had a huge day, maybe his best as a Patriot with five catches for 81 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It wasn’t easy, but the Brady-led passing game carried the Patriots to victory and on to the AFC title game.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: INC – Bill Belichick has never been in favor of running the ball just to run it or running it into a stout defense that’s essentially a brick wall. He proved that against the Ravens as the Patriots ran the ball just nine times for 20 yards when you eliminate Brady’s four kneel-downs. Brady scrambled for the only rushing score of the day, a 4-yard effort. New England’s running backs combined for just seven attempts for 14 yards on the evening, and didn’t get a single carry after halftime. In fact New England didn’t attempt a run of any kind in the third quarter and its only fourth-quarter rush was a Brady sneak. Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had no intention of running the ball, that was clear.

–PASS DEFENSE: C – The Darrelle Revis-led pass defense was supposed to be the reason that New England was considered to have its best title chances in a decade. For much of the regular season, including a final month-plus in which the Patriots didn’t allow an opponent a touchdown in the second half of games, that appeared to be quite true. But Revis struggled a bit early on against the Ravens and the pass defense never really did shut down Joe Flacco’s attack. Revis allowed a 9-yard score on a slant to Steve Smith Sr. in the first quarter to give the visitors a 14-0 lead. He also got called for a 20-yard pass interference penalty covering Smith late in the second quarter to set up a Ravens touchdown and 21-14 lead at the half. Brandon Browner also had his issues, mostly with Torrey Smith. The speedster caught a 35-yarder over Browner to set up a short touchdown. Browner also earned his requisite penalty before leaving with a knee injury. New England also never got any real pressure on Flacco.

–RUSH DEFENSE: C-minus – New England’s run defense finished the regular season with an eight-game stretch of impressive play, holding opponents to less than 3.6 yards per carry or less seven times. That allowed a unit that started out the year in very inconsistent fashion to finish as the No. 9 run defense for the season. But that strength up front was not evident against the Ravens as Justin Forsett got things going early to key the Baltimore offense, including its bootleg passing game. The running back, who had 1,200 yards and a 5.4 average during the regular season, picked up 34 yards on his five attempts in the Ravens’ pair of opening drives to touchdowns and a 14-0 lead. Forsett finished the day with 24 attempts for 129 yards for a 5.4 average, taking care of all but four of the Ravens’ rushing attempts. He was more productive in the first half — 10 carries for 78 yards — but his 14 carries for 51 yards after the break showed he wasn’t exactly completely shut down as the Patriots fought to come back. The Patriots’ front got pushed around at times on defense and Forsett took advantage of his holes and seams to have a productive day.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C – New England didn’t make any real mistakes in the kicking game, but the third phase wasn’t exactly a strength for the team, either. Stephen Gostkowski never attempted a field goal and was not able to notch a single touchback on his six kickoffs to aggressive Ravens returner Jacoby Jones. Ryan Allen had just a 32.8-yard net average on his five punts, although his coverage didn’t allow a return longer than nine yards. Danny Amendola avoided disaster when Chris Jones recovered his fumble on New England’s opening kickoff. Julian Edelman was probably New England’s best special teamer on the day, averaging 15 yards per punt return on three chances, including a 19-yard long. It was a quiet day in the kicking game with a matchup of two impressive special teams units.

–COACHING: B-plus – The Patriots came up with solid adjustments and trick plays to get the victory. The coaches also did a decent job keeping the team moving forward despite two different 14-point deficits. The wrinkle using just four lineman and one ineligible skill player on three different plays certainly caught John Harbaugh and the Ravens off guard, leading to three completions on a touchdown drive. The pass defense also improved as the game went on, despite having to play without Brandon Browner for more than two quarters. One area that the coaches were not really able to clean up was the pass protection, as Brady was knocked around quite a bit. The loss of center Bryan Stork to injury didn’t help that area, but the issue was glaring before he went down. The trick plays and success they found with them is a big boost in the grade for the coaches. Overall, it was a hard-fought battle on the field and that likely reflected the back-and-forth adjustments between the two coaching staffs. The Patriots got the better of that battle.