Patriots Defense Dominates San Diego in 23-14 Victory

The Patriots spotted the Chargers a 14-3 lead last night, and then dominated the second half to score 20 straight and take the game 23-14. The win kept them ahead of the AFC pack for a potential first-round playoff bye. And since the Dolphins and Bills both lost, the Patriots need just one more win (or a tie) to claim their sixth straight AFC East title.

The Patriots defense, one big play by the special teams, and one big play by the offense really won this game. The defense stymied San Diego, giving up just 125 yards and four 3-and-outs in their last 9 drives of the game (an average of just 13.8 yards per drive). On special teams, Brandon Bolden sliced from the outside to block a punt, knocking the Chargers' punter out of the game and setting up the Patriots first touchdown. Lastly, Julian Edelman's catch-and-run 69-yard touchdown was a back-breaker for the Chargers, making it a two-score lead in a game where their offense had done nothing for the better part of 32 minutes of game time.

The defensive line did a great job mixing up blitz packages and stuffing the run. Seaver Siliga returned with a vengeance, man-handling blockers and forcing runs away from him, while totaling 3 tackles, half a sack, and a QB hit. And Alan Branch and Vince Wilfork helped form an impenetrable front line that freed up the outside pass rush to get to the San Diego QB.

On the outside, Rob Ninkovich had a terrific game, with 5 tackles (2 for a loss), 1 sack, and a QB hit. And several of his tackles were down the field, stopping the Chargers from converting third downs, and forcing punts. And Akeem Ayers continues to improve and prove his worth; he had 2 tackles, 1 QB hit, one pass defended, and his interception shut down San Diego's only decent penetration of the second half. These two forced Phillip Rivers up in the pocket, where he regularly got punished by the interior linemen and blitzing linebackers.

Speaking of linebackers, Jamie Collins is really coming into his own. Dont'a Hightower missed the game with a shoulder injury, so not only did Collins have to take on more playing responsibilities, he had to call the defenses and make adjustments, too. And he came through with flying colors: 9 tackles to lead the team (3 of those for losses), 2 sacks (for 18 yards), and 2 QB hits. He also helped cover San Diego's most dangerous weapon, tight end Antonio Gates, who had just 5 catches for just 34 yards and 1 first down.

Collins, special teamer Jonathan Casillas, and safety Patrick Chung did a great job faking the blitz and then falling back into coverage -- because they blitzed just enough to keep the Chargers guessing.  And the 'backers did a great job cleaning up any runs that reached them, although frankly that didn't happen all that often. Most of the run stuffing was done by the front four.

In the secondary, Darrelle Revis was Mister Shutdown yet again. He shadowed receiver Keenan Allen, who had just 2 catches for 3 yards, his lowest output of the season. (Between you and me, it's a joy to watch Revis play. He's much better than anyone who's come through here since Asante Samuel left.) At safety, stalwart Devin McCourty proved his worth again, helping hold the Chargers to three plays of 20+ yards -- just a week after giving up seven such plays against the Packers.

Opposite Revis, both Brandon Browner and Kyle Arrington struggled some and made some plays. Browner had a huge hit that caused an interception, but the play was called back, as Browner was called for a bogus penalty on the play. However, bogus or not, Browner gets so many penalties, he will never get the benefit of the doubt in a situation like that. He needs to clean up his play-to-play actions if he wants the officials to respect him.

Arrington had a silly tripping call and got beaten on some of the bigger plays in the game. But he also had an important tackle-for-loss on a running back and did a nice job making tackles after the catch (at least most of the time). He'll never be mistaken for Revis, but he never gets down and always makes receivers earn every yard.

On the opposite side of the ball, it was a struggle all night long. The offensive line gave up way too much pressure: 1 sack (7 yards), 9 tackles for a loss, and 5 QB hits. Nate Solder got schooled on the pass rush in the first half, though he did bounce back in that aspect in the second half. And the interior linemen couldn't give quarterback Tom Brady a clean pocket into which he could step and throw. Brady's lone interception came when San Diego hit him yet again, causing a short throw that was picked near the goal line.

Not to excuse the quarterback. That INT was unacceptable; he would have been better off eating the ball than throwing with so much pressure in his face. It was only second down, and he had a timeout in his pocket. Overall he ended up with decent stats: 28 of 44 (63.6%), 317 yards, 2 touchdowns, one INT, and a 90.8 QB rating. But that interception was a real problem. And not for nothing, but getting mad on the sideline doesn't help as much as not throwing the pick in the first place.

The receiving chores were top-heavy again, with tight end Rob Gronkowski (8 catches, 87 yards, 1 touchdown) and receiver Julian Edelman (8 catches, 171 yards, 1 touchdown) doing the bulk of the work. Between them, they accounted for more than half the teams' catches, and many of those receptions were against double- and triple-teams. San Diego's best strategy to stop Gronkowski was to force him to help in pass protection. And Edelman was honored with the best cornerback on many plays.

No other receivers did much, except for Brandon LaFell's fumble that was returned for a touchdown. I'd give him a semi-pass on that, since it was his first fumble of the year. But as the games get more and more important, ball-security becomes one of the critical stats that lead to victories. So LaFell and Brady have to take care of the ball going forward.

The running game as an afterthought in this one. LeGarrette Blount had 20 carries for 66 yards, but was slammed back most of the game. Shane Vereen didn't do much better, and Jonas Gray got off the bench for a few plays (2 carries, 9 yards). None of them did a particularly great job in pass protection, but the blitzes came from so many areas, the Patriots went with an empty backfield on most of their pass plays anyway.

As for the coaching, the defensive game plan worked extremely well. The Chargers scored 34 points the prior week against the Ravens, including 21 points in the fourth quarter. And the Patriots held the San Diego offense to just 7 points, and shut them out the entire second half. Kudos to defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and his assistants.

The offensive coaching has to get better, in my opinion. In the last two games, the Pats faced excellent defensive coordinators, and they came away with a total of 3 points in the first- and third-quarters of both games combined. In fact, for the season they have just 137 total points in those quarters for the year, versus 263 in the second- and fourth-quarters -- so they've scored just 34% of their points in those two halves of games.

This disparity speaks to not having the right plan entering the game, and getting out-adjusted at the half. Coordinator Josh McDaniels might be on the short list for another head coaching job, but until he leaves, he needs to self-scout better and have a better plan entering each half.

So where does that leave us? 10-3 and in prime position to have a playoff run that goes through Foxboro. The Dolphins come to town next week, and if the Patriots win, they will clinch the division title. They'll probably win the division no matter what; but a loss probably means road games in the playoffs, so that has to be avoided for the balance of the season.

Statistical Oddity of the Week: The Patriots committed fewer penalties than their opponent in only three games this season -- and all three games were against the AFC West. (Trivia question: can you guess which AFC West opponent did not have more penalties than the Patriots when they played this year? Answer below.)

Weekly Water-cooler Wisdom: "Homing in on another division title, and hoping for a #1 playoff seed. That Kansas City debacle seems like a long time ago."

Keep the faith,

- Scott

PS. 10-3!

PPS. Trivia Answer:
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
It should be no surprise that the Oakland Raiders were able to keep up with the Patriots when it comes to breaking the rules -- as each team notched six penalties in their September game.