What a game. The New England Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers against nearly all expectations, and even I thought the effort was lost three-quarters of the way through. But you can never count out these Pats, especially in the playoffs.
They were down by 11 with a couple minutes left in the first half and down by eight with a few minutes left in the game and scored decisively both times 11 unanswered points at the end.
Of course, much of the credit/blame has to go to San Deigo coach Marty Schottenheimer for some very bad moves, notably including going for it on 4th and 11 in the first quarter and then throwing away a critical timeout in the second half by challenging a turnover that was clearly unambiguous.
On the other hand, Ladanian Tomlinson ran at will and Philip Rivers threw some very big passes, while Tom Brady—apart from the final two minutes of the first half and the final five of the second—struggled and was held in check by the Chargers.
There were so many key plays, key changes in momentum, in addition to all the little things the Patriots did right, I can’t catalog them all here. I’ll just wrap up by saying how much I’m looking forward to next week’s game in Indianapolis. It’ll be poetic.
