Down 19-3, Patriots rally past Browns

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Nearly everything had to go right for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to pull off their latest comeback.

Just about everything did.

Brady threw two touchdown passes and the Cleveland Browns committed two critical penalties in the final 61 seconds as the Patriots stormed to a 27-26 victory yesterday.

"That was awesome," Brady said, "pretty sweet."

The improbable rally salvaged a potentially costly day for the Patriots (10-3), who lost star tight end Rob Gronkowski to a suspected torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the third quarter. He is expected to have an MRI today.

New England fell behind 19-3 when Jason Campbell connected with Josh Gordon for an 80-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. Campbell's third scoring pass of the day, a 4-yarder to Jordan Cameron with 2:39 left in the game, made it 26-14.

Brady threw a 2-yard scoring pass to Julian Edelman with 1:01 left and a 1-yarder to Danny Amendola with 31 seconds remaining.

A 15-yard penalty against the Browns for unnecessary roughness on Edelman allowed the Patriots to kick off from the 50-yard line, rather than their 35. Those 15 yards became significant when Kyle Arrington recovered the onside kick at the Cleveland 40.

Brady began the winning drive with a 10-yard pass to Amendola. Then Leon McFadden was penalized for defensive pass interference against Josh Boyce in the end zone, putting the ball at the 1.

The Browns (4-9) moved to the Patriots' 41-yard line with 1 second left, but Billy Cundiff missed a 58-yard field-goal attempt on the final play.

"How many times has he [Brady] done that in his career?" Browns coach Rob Chudzinski said after his team's seventh loss in eight games. "We had our opportunity and we weren't able to close the game out how we wanted to."

Gronkowski was hurt when hit by Cleveland safety T.J. Ward after a 21-yard completion. He missed the first six games of the season recovering from offseason surgeries on his left forearm and back. In his six full games after returning, he led NFL tight ends with 37 catches for 560 yards.

The late comeback ruined another brilliant game by Gordon, who had seven catches for 151 yards. Gordon set an NFL record with a total of 774 yards receiving in four consecutive games.-- AP