Patriots edge Ravens to reach Super Bowl

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Slumped on a stool in front of his locker, Lee Evans grabbed a towel and started wiping the tears away, using the same hands he felt betrayed him minutes earlier.

The Ravens' 30-year-old wide receiver was distraught, barely able to fully explain the emotions running through him. Evans failed to make a potential winning 12-yard touchdown reception with 25 seconds remaining in Sunday's's AFC Championship Game.

"It was an opportunity for us to go to the Super Bowl and I let it go," said Evans, who spent his first seven seasons with the Bills before joining the Ravens this season. "The most disappointing part of all this is that I feel personally that I let everyone down. This is the greatest team that I've been on and I feel like I let everybody down. So it's on my shoulders.

"It's hard to sit in here and accept how and why things happened, but it's the reality of it. It's as tough as it gets."

Baltimore still had a shot to at least send it to overtime. But Billy Cundiff, who drilled his previous 14 fourth-quarter field-goal attempts, hooked a 32-yarder wide left with 11 seconds left, and the top-seeded Patriots held on for a 23-20 victory over the second-seeded Ravens at Gillette Stadium.

It will mark the fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 years for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The Pats hadn't gotten that far since their perfect season ended there against the Giants four years ago.

"It's incredible," Brady said. "As a kid growing up, I was a 49ers fan, so I got to watch a lot of Super Bowls. You pinch yourself to get this opportunity."

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After that nightmarish finish, the Ravens probably wish they could pinch themselves -- and wake up hoping it was just a dream.

"Stunning loss at the end there," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

Trailing by three with 1:44 remaining and the ball at their 21-yard line, the Ravens marched to New England's 14 in seven plays, aided by a 23-yard hookup from Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin on third-and-1. On second-and-1 from the Patriots' 14, Flacco lofted a beautiful pass to Evans near the right front pylon.

Evans got both hands on the ball and took a step before reserve defensive back Sterling Moore's right hand knocked the ball out for an incomplete pass.

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"I felt like I had it, but it came out, and I don't really even know how to put it into words," Evans said. "It hit me right where you want to be hit. It was a great pass by Joe and it was a play that was not completed by me, and nobody else can take the fall for that."

Flacco, who completed 22 of 26 attempts for 306 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, couldn't connect with tight end Dennis Pitta on the next play, forcing Harbaugh to send Cundiff out on fourth down. Cundiff missed badly on what essentially was a chip shot.

"It's a kick I've kicked probably a thousand times in my career," he said. "I went out there and just didn't convert. That's just the way things go. There's really no excuse for it.

"The disappointment is letting my teammates down. This is a team game, when you look at it. To know that Ray [Lewis] has poured his heart out and he's had a long career and you don't know how many more years he has left, to let him down is pretty tough."

Brady felt he let his team down a bit. He threw a pair of interceptions, completing 22 of 26 for 239 yards with a passer rating of only 57.5.

"Well, I [stunk] pretty bad today," Brady said. "But the defense saved us."

Cundiff's miss and Evans' failed grab contributed to that.

"We could have played better on offense," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, "we could have played better on defense, we could have played better in the kicking game. But we did enough things to win against a good football team.

"They make some plays, you make some plays and it comes down to one shot."