Patriots 23, Chargers 20 (10/24/2010)

The Patriots and Chargers held a contest yesterday to see who wanted to win the game less -- and the Chargers came out on top at losing -- dropping a 23-20 decision in the comedy of errors that masqueraded as the CBS featured football game of the week.  The victory ties the 5-1 Patriots with the Jets for the AFC East lead (and in fact, for the best record in the NFL, along with Pittsburgh).  The team will undoubtedly crank up the welcome wagon for the return of Randy Moss next Sunday.  Insert Halloween puns here.

The Pats offense produced their lowest halftime yardage in almost seven years, and it was frustrating to watch.  In the first 30 minutes, Tom Brady completed 6 of 16 passes for 35 measly yards and was sacked three times for 24 yards.  The offense went 0 for 6 on third down conversions, was just 33% in the red zone, and ran for only 27 yards.  Overall the team committed six penalties, including on their first two kicks, had two really bad snaps on punts, and allowed the Chargers 146 total yards to their 38.

So how did they lead 13-3 at the half, you ask.  One word: turnovers.  San Diego receivers lost three fumbles, the first on a big hit, but the last two on the worst kind of mistakes you'll ever see at the NFL level.  Wide receiver Rich Goodman left the ball on the ground when he thought he was down by contact, but he'd never been touched, and safety James Sanders pounced on it.  Then running back Jacob Hester *thought* a throw was an incomplete pass, but it was a live ball because it was a lateral, and Rob Ninkovich scooped it up and returned it 63 yards.

The Patriots got 10 points after those two plays, and that was the obvious difference at the half.

The second half started well, with a 17-play, 79 yard drive for a New England touchdown.  When the Chargers could only muster a field goal in response, and the Pats answered with 3 points of their own, it looked like they'd coast to a win.  After all, a 23-6 lead should be safe with 11 minutes left in the game.  But not in this oddball affair.

San Diego marched down the field against a soft zone defense, scoring to make it 23-13 on a Philip Rivers touchdown pass.  Then the Patriots made a basic mistake of their own, letting the Chargers recover an onside kick when they *knew* it was coming.  (Note: they need to coach that better; two Patriots appeared to be waiting for the ball to go 10 yards, even though that requirement only applies to the kicking team.)  And wouldn't you know it, another Chargers touchdown to make it a 3-point game.

After a conventional kickoff, the Patriots went 4-and-out, opting to go for it on fourth-and-one -- and losing yard.  But give the Patriots defense credit, they made the Chargers try a long field goal (50 yards, after yet another stupid penalty), and the kick went off the upright and was no good.

As strange as the game was, it wasn't all bad.  Jerod Mayo is returning to his tackle-machine ways, and he couldn't do it without improved play from the D-line, which is doing a nice job keeping the other team's O-line off the Patriots linebackers.  Devin McCourty is still a bit of trick-or-treat, but he did a nice job on his interception, and had tight coverage about half the time.

Linebacker Jermaine Cunningham gets closer and closer to the QB every game, and did a nice job holding the edge against the run... most of the time.  And the off-set defensive line ploy, where Vince Wilfork plays left or right instead of on the nose, worked out very well most of the last two games.  Teams don't seem to be able to audible into a different play, and they end up running right at Vince more often than not -- and most of the time that's good for the Patriots.

The downside for the defense comes when you see Gary Guyton on the field (the tackle-missing machine), or when Kyle Arrington singles up against anyone.  There probably isn't a receiver in the league that can't beat Arrington one-on-one, so they need to give him safety or linebacker help.  And of course, seeing safety Pat Chung leave the game with an injury was not a good thing.

On offense, the line did not give Brady much time, and they couldn't run the ball.  The best drives they had involved lots of short passes and creative design to get Aaron Hernandez the ball.  But their thinness at running back and smallish offensive line came back to bite them in this game.

Thankfully, what didn't end up biting them were the bad snaps by Jake Ingram.  Ingram had a *great* first season (2009), missing on only one snap all year -- and that was on a field goal that Gostkowski made anyway.  But something was up yesterday.  Ingram had two high snaps on field goals, bounced three snaps to punter Zoltan Mesko, and added a holding call.  Here's hoping he got all of this out of his system in one game; because long snapping can be like putting in golf -- you never know when you might lose your touch, and it's tough to get it back.

The coaching was unremarkable; except for the two failed replay challenges and foolhardy decision to run wide on fourth-and-one.  Misdirection is your friend against a fast, aggressive defense, so a play-action fake or naked bootleg is a better bet in that situation.  Though a punt might have been good, too.

So where does that leave us?  As stated above, there are three teams at 5-1, and your Patriots are one of them.  The Vikings come to town next week, and even though they are 2-4 they are a dangerous team to play right now.  They are desperate for a win to keep up in a weak division, they have a stout defense and a dangerous offense.  Over/under on the number of Randy Moss costumes in the stands: 1,324... place your bets through legal channels only, please.

Statistical Oddity of the Week: The Patriots won the last two games by the same score: 23-20 over the Ravens and Chargers.  They last pulled off that feat the first two weeks of the 2007 season, when they won 38-14 over the Jets and, believe it or not, the Chargers.

Bonus Oddity: The offensively challenged Titans and Raiders are the only two teams with more points scored than the Patriots.  Trivia question: why then are the Patriots still ranked as the #1 scoring offense in the league (answer below)?

Weekly Water-cooler Wisdom: "Why does Norv Turner still have a job?"

Keep the faith,

- Scott

PS.  5-1!

PPS.  Trivia answer:

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Both the Titans and Raiders have played one more game than the Patriots; so New England's 29.5 points per game still rank #1.