Steven Senne/Associated Press

The playoff road to Super Bowl XLIX is halfway complete. Saturday saw two more teams exit the race in the divisional round and two more move on to the next stage.

The New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens in a wild, back-and-forth contest. The Patriots found themselves in a 14-point deficit twice but pulled out a 35-31 victory.

In the late game, the Seattle Seahawks outlasted the Carolina Panthers. While the final score of 31-17 may indicate a more one-sided game, the contest was strongly contested for the better part of four quarters.

Over the next few slides, we will take a look at how Saturday's games unfolded and provide grades for each of the four teams involved.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Pass Offense

The Ravens kicked the game off by attacking the New England secondary through the air. Baltimore scored a touchdown on the game's five-play opening drive; quarterback Joe Flacco went 4-of-4 for 69 yards with the score on that drive. He was 9-of-10 for 109 yards with two scores after two drives.

Flacco maintained a high level of play throughout the game. His third-quarter interception did not hurt the team as the Ravens defense created a quick three-and-out. 

The offensive line held the New England pass rush at bay for the vast majority of the game, which meant plenty of time for Flacco to find his targets downfield. Had he not thrown a second interception late in the fourth quarter, he easily could have been the hero of this matchup.

Flacco finished the game 28-of-45 for 292 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions.

Grade: B-

Run Offense

Baltimore relied on the pass on the game's opening drive. It began pounding with the run on its second. Running back Justin Forsett was a monster in the first half, racking up 78 yards on just 10 carries.

The ground game was not as much of a factor in the second half, but it produced well enough to prevent New England from selling out against the pass. Forsett led the way with 129 yards on the ground. As a team, the Ravens finished with 136 net rushing yards.

Grade: C+

Pass Defense

The Ravens did their very best to put pressure on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The team utilized a variety of blitz packages combined with interior pressure from the mammoth defensive line. This pressure helped to keep Brady from getting into a comfort zone early in the game. He was sacked twice.

The Ravens managed an interception just before halftime that led to a Baltimore score. However, the secondary simply could not contain the Patriots' passing attack for the entirety of the game. The pass rush also began to fall apart as more and more defenders crept back into coverage.

With the offense playing well, it was up to the Ravens defense to win this game, and it came up just short against Brady.

Grade: D

Run Defense

The Ravens did an outstanding job of shutting down the run in the first half. Early success against the run helped force New England to go pass-heavy (just nine carries in the first half), which ultimately may have led to the second-quarter interception.

New England essentially abandoned the run in the second half, which makes this a victory for the Ravens' run defense. 

Grade: A+

Special Teams 

Kicker Justin Tucker nailed a 25-yard field goal that gave the Ravens a fourth-quarter lead. It ended up being the only field-goal attempt of the entire contest. Sam Koch averaged 50.3 yards per punt, while Jacoby Jones averaged just 6.7 yards per punt return.

It was an all-around average night for the special teams unit.

Grade: C

Coaching

John Harbaugh and his staff came out with a nearly perfect game plan to combat the Patriots. Dean Pees' defense took away the running game and created pressure up front. The staff also made some gutsy but intelligent calls.

The decision to go for it on 4th-and-6 in the third quarter was huge, as it was successful and led to a two-touchdown lead. Offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak clearly saw a matchup he liked, and he capitalized on it. The decision to go for it on fourth down early in the fourth quarter was equally effective, though the result of that one was only a field goal. 

Kubiak's offense couldn't have performed much more efficiently against New England's eighth-ranked defense (19.6 points per game allowed in the regular season), and the Ravens were only a play or two away from winning this game. 

The only real criticism here is the decision to go with soft coverage late in the game with a field-goal lead.

Grade: B

Final Analysis 

The Ravens put forth a tremendous effort in what will likely go down as one of the best postseason games in recent history. 

The play calling was sound and, for the most part, execution was solid. The two turnovers from Flacco obviously made a difference in the game, but against a different team or in a different venue, this might have been a winning performance. 

Final Grade: B-

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Pass Offense

The New England offense sputtered on its first drive and produced a touchdown on its second. Brady was off on a couple of early throws, but he also completed a couple of long passes and made some clutch third-down plays. Still, the unit just was not as impressive as Baltimore's early in the game.

Brady and Co. began to gain traction in the second quarter, but a poorly thrown interception led to a Ravens touchdown right before halftime and a massive momentum shift. However, Brady responded in the second half with another strong performance.

New England was aided by a 51-yard trick pass by wideout Julian Edelman to Danny Amendola in the third quarter that went for a touchdown.

Brady finished 33-of-50 for 367 yards with four total touchdowns (one rushing) and an interception. He also put the offense on his shoulders in the second half and found a way to deliver.

Grade: A

Run Offense

The Patriots got virtually nothing out of their rushing offense early in the contest. In the first half, four ball-carriers combined for just 17 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came from Brady.

Things didn't get any better in the second half, as New England basically gave up even trying to run the football. Including fourth-quarter kneel-downs, the Patriots rushed just 13 times for 14 net yards.

Grade: F

Pass Defense

The Patriots' pass defense was absolutely horrendous at the start of this contest. The defensive front got no pressure on Flacco at all, while the secondary allowed Ravens receivers to roam the open field with space. This, even though the Patriots knew what to expect from the Ravens offense.

"...I’d say Flacco being one of the best deep-ball passers in the league with good deep receivers, especially [Torrey] Smith, but [Jacoby] Jones, they’ve got a bunch of them—Steve Smith—they can get the ball down there to several different guys," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said prior to the game, via Doug Kyed of NESN.com.

New England did come away with an interception, but the defensive front never did find a way to pressure or fluster Flacco. The overall play of this unit has to be concerning, though the secondary did make a few late plays and managed to come away with the game-sealing interception.

Grade: C

Run Defense

The Patriots' run defense also gave up some big plays early in the game. This allowed the Ravens to bring a balanced attack and find even more space in the passing game. 

The run defense did improve in the second half, but the New England defense was never able to make Baltimore one-dimensional on the other side of the ball. 

Grade: C+

Special Teams 

The Patriots' special teams unit got off to a shaky start with an Amendola fumble on his first kickoff return of the day. Fortunately, New England recovered. 

There were no other major gaffes from the unit, though Ryan Allen's average of just 37.8 yards per punt was a disappointment. Amendola provided a spark with a kick-return average of 25.0 yards.

Grade: C+

Coaching

As is often the case with the Patriots, Bill Belichick and his staff consistently found ways to put this team in position to win. With Baltimore geared to defend the run, Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels attacked almost exclusively via the pass. 

Meanwhile, creative defensive play-calling created just enough big plays to notch the victory.

Whoever drew up the third-quarter Edelman pass deserves a ton of credit for pulling out the right kind of trickery at exactly the right time. However, Belichick probably deserves the most credit for willing his team to twice overcome a 14-point deficit. His use of four offensive linemen at times was creative, though many will undoubtedly prefer the term "deceptive."

The concerning part of the equation is that the Patriots still could have easily lost this game.

Grade: A-

Final Analysis 

The Patriots survived a furious assault from a dangerous opponent and move on to the AFC title game once again. However, this was by no means a dominating performance.

There is confidence to be gained from the victory, to be sure, but there is no way the defense can play at a similar level next week and expect to beat the Denver Broncos or the Indianapolis Colts.

Expect New England to make several adjustments heading into next week, but credit the team for coming out on top in the most exciting game of the postseason to date. 

Final Grade: B+

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

Pass Offense

We saw some good and some bad from Panthers quarterback Cam Newton against the Seahawks. Like a week ago, he threw a few errant passes, but he also seemed a lot more poised than he did against the Arizona Cardinals.

The problem was that while Newton did a good job of avoiding pressure and keeping his eyes downfield, he failed to produce the big-hitting plays like his Seattle counterpart. His fourth-quarter interception essentially sealed the game, even though smart passing nearly got the Panthers back in it.

Newton finished the game 23-of-36 for 246 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Grade: C+

Run Offense

Despite facing a Seahawks defense that ranked third against the run in the regular season (81.5 yards-per-game allowed), the Panthers managed to find some early success on the ground. Newton and Jonathan Stewart combined for 63 first-half rushing yards and helped maintain balance on offense.

Unfortunately, consistent running didn't make up for a lack of chunk plays. As the Seahawks extended their lead, the ground game became even less of a factor. Stewart finished with 70 rushing yards, while Newton totaled 37.

Grade: B

Pass Defense

One of the biggest issues the Panthers defense had in this game, especially early, was containing Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson frequently bought himself enough time in the pocket to attack the secondary deep downfield. 

In fact, the defense didn't get to Wilson until a third-quarter stunt paved the way to a sack. This proved to be a major issue, as Wilson consistently found ways to slice through the Carolina defense with the pass.

Grade: D

Run Defense

Carolina did a nice job of shutting down the Seattle ground game in the first half. Through the first two quarters, the Seahawks managed just 21 yards on nine carries. 

Unfortunately, Carolina's dominance against the ground game wouldn't continue into the second half. Seattle turned those 21 rushing yards into an even 100 and managed to make some key plays down the stretch. Still, it was a solid outing for this group.

Grade: B

Special Teams 

Though it took three different tries (due to penalties), kicker Graham Gano did connect on a 35-yard field goal just before halftime. While this was really the only standout special teams play of the evening for Carolina, the unit was not a major liability like it was a week ago.

Overall, it was an average performance.

Grade: C

Coaching

Head coach Ron Rivera deserves a lot of credit for getting his 7-8-1 team this far into the postseason and for having his club ready to hang with the defending Super Bowl champions for most of four quarters.

Defensively, the Panthers came into this game with a sound strategy. Coordinator Sean McDermott attacked the run, hoping to take away the ground game and play-action. The plan worked in stretches, but it couldn't hold up for all four quarters. The group never adjusted completely to Seattle's varied attack.

Offensive coordinator Mike Shula probably could have leaned on the rushing attack more while the score was still close. However, he still called a respectable game that was marred by Newton's mistakes.

Grade: C-

Final Analysis

This game was much closer than the final score might indicate. The Panthers battled, especially on defense, and had plenty of opportunities to draw even or even win.

As is usually the case for postseason losers, turnovers and surrendering big plays doomed the Panthers. Against a lesser opponent, however, the outcome might have been different. 

Overall, this looks like a team that is a year away from being a true contender. 

Final Grade: C

John Froschauer/Associated Press

Pass Offense

Wilson continues to show why he is considered one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL today. He brought poise and efficiency into this game even though he was facing a very aggressive defense. He tossed two first-half touchdowns, and his mobility in the pocket opened up a lot of things downfield.

His success continued into the second half, especially after the rushing attack started to get back on track. 

Wilson finished the game 15-of-22 for 268 yards with three touchdowns. Tight end Luke Willson and wideout Jermaine Kearse combined for 197 of those yards.

Grade: A

Run Offense

The Seahawks' ground attack did not get off to a hot start against the stout Carolina front. Star running back Marshawn Lynch was limited to 21 yards on eight carries in the first half. Wilson scrambled just once through two quarters for zero yards.

Fortunately, Wilson was able to spark the running game in the second half with a few nifty scrambles, and the rest of the backfield seemed to fall into place.

Still, the Seahawks were held to 100 net rushing yards and 3.6 yards per carry as a team. This would likely not be good enough had so much success not come from the passing game.

Grade: C

Pass Defense

The Seattle defense forced two Newton turnovers in the first half, but it also allowed Carolina to make a few downfield plays in the passing game.

Newton passed for nearly 250 yards against the Seattle defense, but he was also forced into a number of mistakes that ultimately proved to be too much to overcome. This was not an overwhelming performance by the Seattle secondary, but the Seahawks did prove that being opportunistic is the real key to a winning defense.

Grade: B

Run Defense

Seattle struggled to contain the run early, allowing the Panthers to amass 87 yards of ground offense in the first half. This trend continued into the second half, though the ground game became much less of a factor as Seattle extended its lead.

As a team, the Panthers rushed for 132 net yards.

Grade: C-

Special Teams 

Though it ultimately didn't pay off, safety Kam Chancellor added some special teams excitement by leaping over both lines on a second-quarter field-goal attempt. Kicker Steven Hauschka added a fourth-quarter field goal that gave Seattle a touchdown lead.

Bryan Walters returned just one punt for nine yards.

Grade: C

Coaching

Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell stuck to their tried-and-true offensive strategy. Even though the running game wasn't effective early, the Seahawks stuck with it. This allowed play-action to work and gave Wilson plenty of opportunities to attack downfield.

Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, on the other hand, seemingly altered his usual game plan just a bit in order to account for Newton's mobility. Instead of aggressively pressuring the quarterback on every play, the defense utilized stunts, spies and containment plays, which worked. 

Grade: B+

Final Analysis 

This was not as clean or as impressive a win for Seattle as the final score would indicate, but it is exactly the type of win we have become accustomed to seeing from the Seahawks.

The run defense had its lapses, as did the rushing offense. However, the team found other ways to win. The passing game couldn't have been much more efficient, and the defense made enough big plays to seal the win.

Seattle will face either the Dallas Cowboys or the Green Bay Packers next week and will do so at home. This gives this team a very good chance to advance to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year.

Final Grade: B+