FOXBOROUGH, Mass.- Tom Brady hit Rob Gronkowski with two touchdown passes and reached over the goal line for another score Saturday to lead the New England Patriots into the AFC championship game with a 27-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
It's the fifth straight trip to the conference title game for the defending Super Bowl champions.
The Patriots (13-4) will meet the winner of Sunday's game between Pittsburgh and Denver for a spot in Super Bowl 50 as they try to become the first repeat NFL champs since they did it in 2003-04.
After spending the last two weeks recovering from knee and back injuries, Gronkowski had touchdown catches from 8 and 16 yards The All-Pro tight end had seven receptions for 82 yards.
Kansas City (12-6) had won a franchise-record 11 consecutive games, including 30-0 at Houston last week in the wild-card round.
Copyright 2016 by The Associated Press