New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Baltimore Ravens during their NFL game on Monday night. The Patriots won 27-24 to maintain their unbeaten streak. - Reuters

BALTIMORE (Reuters):

THE NEW England Patriots overcame a lacklustre performance and frigid temperatures to defeat the Baltimore Ravens 27-24 on Monday night and remain on course to become the NFL's first unbeaten team in 35 years.

With the Ravens leading 24-20, New England quarterback Tom Brady engineered a magnificent 13-play, 73-yard drive to silence a record crowd of 71,382 at a sold-out M&T Bank Stadium.

Brady completed an eight-yard touchdown pass to Jabar Gaffney with 44 seconds remaining to give the three-times Super Bowl champions the victory.

"It was a long drive, which came down to third downs and fourth downs," said Brady. "We executed when we needed to."

But the Patriots quarterback was far from satisfied with team's overall performance.

"We have to execute better, run better routes, throw better passes, make better catches and block better," he added.

Twice in the final drive Brady faced fourth downs but managed to emerge unscathed.

He ran for 12 yards on a fourth and six, and a holding call on a fourth and five with less than one minute left gave the Patriots a first and goal at the Baltimore eight-yard line.

Overcame critical situation

"I hadn't had a catch all game and they put me in," Gaffney said of his touchdown. "In a critical situation I was able to come through."

Brady had trouble with the swirling winds and temperatures that dipped into the 30s, completing just 18 of 38 passes for 257 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

The Patriots (12-0) are looking to emulate the 1972 Miami Dolphins by rolling through the season unbeaten.

"There's a lot of things that we didn't do as well as we needed to do as a football team," said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. "You name it, it was a problem.

"You have to give our players credit for the way they played in the fourth quarter. It wasn't perfect. There are a lot of things we need to work on.

"But I was proud of the way they played when it was on the line."

Rushing performance

Baltimore (4-8) had hoped to energise a bitterly disappointing season by saddling the Patriots with their first loss.

Led by a 138-yard, one-touchdown rushing performance by Willis McGahee, the Ravens took at 24-17 lead with 14:25 left on a one-yard scoring pass from Kyle Boller to Daniel Wilcox.

A 38-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski with just under nine minutes left trimmed the Ravens' lead to 24-20. Both offenses stalled until Brady led the Patriots to their game-winning drive.

"It was a hell of a game," said Ravens coach Brian Billick. "It was a great night. We had a lot of fun but came up short."

McGahee could hardly watch the final minutes, well aware that Brady had performed his magic with the game on the line throughout his illustrious eight-year career.

"I didn't even watch after they got past the 30," he said.