Foxboro, MA (Sports Network) - Tom Brady had another game for the ages, completing 26-of-28 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns, as the Patriots continued their quest for a perfect championship season with a 31-20 victory over Jacksonville in the AFC divisional round of the playoffs.

Brady completed his first 16 passes for the Patriots, who reached the AFC title game for the fourth time in the last five years. The Patriots were in a 14-14 stalemate at the half, but Brady threw TD passes to Wes Welker and Benjamin Watson in the third quarter to propel New England to the win.

Laurence Maroney rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown for the Patriots (17-0), who became just the second team in NFL annals to win their first 17 games of a campaign, joining the 1972 Super Bowl-champion Miami Dolphins. New England has also won 10 consecutive postseason home games.

Brady completed 92.6 percent of his passes, breaking the NFL postseason record for highest completion percentage, topping the mark set by Phil Simms (22- of-25) for the New York Giants in the Super Bowl following the 1986 season in a win over Denver.

"It was a little disappointing, the two he missed," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said sarcastically. "Tom, he's been a great quarterback for us and his whole career here he's been great in big games and outstanding tonight. I thought he managed the team well. There were some audibles, and stuff like that he did a good job of. Of course, he threw the ball well."

Up next is either the Colts or San Diego Chargers next Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Indianapolis beat the Patriots in the conference championship game a year ago.

The Patriots won despite Randy Moss, who set the single-season record for TD catches in a season, being held to one reception for 14 yards. Welker had nine catches for 54 yards.

David Garrard connected on 22-of-33 passes for 278 yards with a pair of TDs and an interception for the Jaguars (12-6), who scored their first postseason win since 1999 last Saturday, defeating the Steelers, 31-29. However, they faltered in the second half and allowed a total of 403 yards.

Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew were non-factors in the game for the Jaguars, totaling just 66 yards rushing.

"You can't lose the turnover battle and expect to win a game like this," Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio said. "We were down two in that category and that was a little bit of a problem. We knew every time we got into the red zone we knew we had to score touchdowns and in the second half they held us to two field goals."

The Patriots marched 82 yards in 11 plays on the first possession of the second half to go in front, 21-14 with Brady hitting Welker from six yards away with 8:49 left in the third quarter. Brady finally had his completion streak to start the game broken during the drive, but converted a pair of third downs with passes, the last one being a 13-yarder to Jabar Gaffney to move the ball to the six. On the next play, Welker caught the ball in the back of the end zone.

"Those guys when they are open like that, that's my job to hit them," Brady said. "They were open every time. It's easy when you have receivers that are open all the time and an offensive line that never lets anyone touch you. It makes it fun to play."

Josh Scobee kicked a 39-yard field goal on the ensuing possession, but Brady continued to get outstanding protection and engineered a 76-yard drive to move the Pats to a 28-17 lead with 49 seconds to go in the quarter. It ended with a nine-yard pass to Watson over the middle on third down, but the drive was keyed by a 29-yard run from Maroney.

New England's defense bent but didn't break on the next possession, as the Jaguars pushed to the seven, but faced with a second-and-goal were left out of the end zone after two straight incompletions by Garrard, forcing a Scobee 25- yard field goal with 9:44 left.

"We when we got into the red zone, we made it tough on ourselves a couple of times where we didn't score touchdowns," Garrard said. "We wanted to make sure to make an emphasis all week long to get six, seven points just so we could stay up with them because we knew they were going to be themselves, the Patriots. They score points."

The sealing drive for the Patriots featured a vintage play from Brady, who escaped pressure and threw down the right sideline to a wide open Donte' Stallworth for a 53-yard gain to the Jacksonville 26. That led to a Stephen Gostkowski 35-yard field goal with 6:39 to play.

Garrard was then picked off by Rodney Harrison, giving the Patriots the ball at their 31 with 3:46 left, and the Pats accumulated another first down to nearly run off all of the remaining time.

Jacksonville took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in nine plays, with Garrard lofting an eight-yard TD pass to Matt Jones. On third down, Garrard was in the grasp of Mike Vrabel, but he got the ball away as his knee was about to hit the ground. Jones was wide open in the rear left corner of the end zone.

It was the first time the Patriots allowed points in any opening drive of a playoff game under Belichick, and the march remained alive after Garrard converted a 4th-and-1 by rolling out and throwing a 34-yard pass to Marcedes Lewis to the New England nine.

Brady was sacked on New England's first offensive play, but he engineered a 10-play, 74-yard scoring march, culminating it with a three-yard pass to Watson in the rear right corner of the end zone with 5:01 left in the quarter. The Pats also converted on fourth down with a 14-yard pass over the middle to Moss to the Jaguars 26.

Garrard fumbled while being sacked on the ensuing possession, and the Patriots converted that into a 14-7 lead on the opening play of the second quarter with Maroney scoring from a yard out.

However, the Jaguars bounced back with an 11-play, 95-yard drive with Garrard lofting the ball six yards to Ernest Wilford in the left side of the end zone. Jacksonville didn't face a third down during the march.

Gostkowski, who missed just three of his 24 field goals during the season, was barely wide right on a 35-yard try with 53 seconds left until halftime.

Brady completed all 12 of his passes for 120 yards in the first half, while Garrard was 12-of-14 for 149 yards.