It wasn't much, but the defense, ranked 19th in the NFL and 28th against the pass, made sure it was enough. It held Means to 43 yards rushing--he had 315 in the previous two playoff games--and limited Brunell to 190 yards while intercepting two passes.

Mike Hollis made field goals of 32 and 28 yards for Jacksonville, which won its final five games just to make the playoffs, then stunned the Bills in Buffalo and the Broncos in Denver.

But the Jaguars will be going home, just like their expansion cousins, the Panthers.

And Parcells, 3-0 in conference title games, gets to improve his 2-0 record in Super Bowls; he won as coach of the New York Giants after the 1986 and 1990 seasons--the latter with Coughlin as his receivers coach.

Parcells joins Don Shula as the only coaches to take two different teams to the Super Bowl, and he would be the first to win with different teams.

At the end of the game, Parcells and Coughlin hugged warmly as Patriots players held their helmets in the air, saluting the crowd of 60,190 that braved a zero-degree wind-chill factor to attend the first AFC Championship game at the stadium. Fireworks were set off outside the stadium, and the players gathered in a circle around Parcells and owner Bob Kraft while the conference championship trophy was presented.

A botched punt by Bryan Barker set up New England's early score. Barker took a high snap, then hesitated before trying to run from deep in Jacksonville territory. He was tackled by Larry Whigham at the 4.

Two plays later, Curtis Martin scored from the 1, the 15th straight home game he's gotten a touchdown.

The Patriots were moving again when Drew Bledsoe's pass was tipped by linebacker Tom McManus and picked off by rookie Aaron Beasley at the Jacksonville 24. The visitors converted that into Hollis' 32-yard field goal, making it 7-3.

Another error on special teams cost Jacksonville three more points. Chris Hudson fumbled a return and Mike Bartrum recovered at the Jaguars 19. Vinatieri kicked a 29-yard field goal after the delay when the lights went out, a power outage caused by a blown transformer.

Jacksonville still seemed to be in the dark in the final moments of the half. The Patriots converted a fourth-and-3 at the Jaguars 45 on a 5-yard pass to Ben Coates.

And with just 15 seconds to go and no timeouts, Bledsoe found a wide-open Shawn Jefferson down the left sideline for 38 yards to the 3. Vinatieri made a 20-yarder for a 13-3 halftime lead.

Vinatieri, who had five field goals in a 28-25 overtime win over Jacksonville on Sept. 22, also was wide left from 46 yards with 8:42 remaining