A fierce defense led by linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ed Reed came up with four turnovers, leading the Ravens to a 20-13 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday and into the AFC Championship Game.

Baltimore forced two turnovers in the first quarter and moved to a 17-3 lead, and interceptions by Lardarius Webb and Reed in the final eight minutes preserved the advantage.

The Ravens (13-4) will visit the New England Patriots next Sunday, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

Baltimore finished the season 9-0 at home.

One week earlier, in the first playoff game in franchise history, the Texans (11-7) didn’t give the ball away in a 31-10 home victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. In this one, rookie quarterback T.J. Yates threw three interceptions.

Tom Brady‘s way of dealing with Tebowmania was to silence it with a record-shattering performance.

Brady threw six touchdowns passes, five in the first half, and put the New England Patriots into the AFC championship game after roughing up Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos 45-10 Saturday night.

The Patriots, winners of nine straight games, will host either Baltimore or Houston next Sunday for a spot in the Super Bowl. Saturday night’s romp snapped a three-game postseason losing streak, two of those at Gillette Stadium, and lifted the Patriots to the verge of their fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 seasons. They’ve won it three times.

And so ended one of the season’s most exciting story lines — one that caught the nation’s attention and began when Denver was 1-4 and made Tebow a starter. The one-time third-stringer promptly won six in a row and seven of eight, with a string of stunning comebacks, and the Broncos ended up backing into the AFC West title.

Alex Smith completed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis with nine seconds left just after Drew Brees had put the high-powered Saints ahead, and the resurgent San Francisco 49erscapitalized on five New Orleans turnovers for a thrilling 36-32 playoff victory Saturday.

Smith ran for a 28-yard touchdown with 2:11 left and threw another scoring pass to Davis. Coach Jim Harbaugh’s NFC West champions (14-3) proved that a hard-hitting, stingy defense can still win in the modern, wide-open NFL by holding off one of league’s most dynamic offenses.

San Francisco triumphed in its first playoff game in nine years, moving within one win of returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since capturing the proud franchise’s fifth championship after the 1994 season. The Saints finished 14-4.

Next up for the 49ers is the NFC title game against the winner of Sunday’s New York Giants-Green Bay Packers matchup.

Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis said Tuesday that he doesn’t plan to sell the franchise, but he kept open the possibility of relocating it.

The Raiders have been trying to procure a new stadium and have been continually linked to a return to Los Angeles, where the team played from 1982 to 1994 before going back to Oakland. L.A. has two groups vying to build a new stadium and land an NFL team.

In response to a reporter’s question after Reggie McKenzie was introduced as the Raiders’ new general manager, Davis said he was open to the proposed joint facility with the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., and has spent more than a year on stadium options other than antiquated Oakland Coliseum. But if a stadium solution can’t be done in the Bay Area, “something will get done somewhere,” Davis said.

“We’ve got to get a stadium. We’ve got to get that done,” said Davis, who added he has talked to groups in L.A. but hasn’t received an offer he likes. “It’s such a competitive business. It really is competitive. We can’t compete for a lot of the players that other teams can at times.”

Regardless of where the Raiders play, Davis said they will remain under his ownership.

“This is my life,” he said. “I’ve been with the Raiders for 48 years. And my whole thing is to continue the legacy that my father (Al Davis, who died in October) built here, and I’ve got one of the largest extended families in the world.”