Here I'll join your little charade. You guys just tore up the Chargers. They were hardly in the game. LT got nothing the Pats just shut him down. Brady shredded their D. Dillon and Maroney just ran all over them. How did the Chargers even get the #1 seed?
None of that's true, of course. The Chargers played a very good game and are a really, really good team. But, it's not true that their mistakes "cost" them the game any more than the Patriots' mistakes nearly cost the game. Football's an intense game and a HUGE part of the game is which team deals with the intensity the best. A great example is the muffed punt. That was the most likely the result of a guy trying to do too much in an important situation. Last year, there were plenty of Patriots fans saying they should have won the game against Denver, if only ... (refs/turnovers/etc). But Denver beat the Patriots by putting too much pressure on Brady and stopping NE (bad) running game.
Yesterday, the Patriots beat the Chargers by keeping them from getting into scoring position too often and playing better football at the pressure points of the game. I'm sorry if it comes across as arrogance, but this has just happened over and over this decade. A team loses to the Patriots, then goes on and on about how they could've just "eliminated mistakes" and they'd be heading on. Well, it just doesn't work that way. You need to stand up mentally to the Patriots relentlessness, or you're going home. And that's what happened yesterday. The Patriots didn't give up on a single drive, even in the face of an excellent Chargers team, one that matched up very well against them.
I commend the Chargers team; it really is an excellent team and will probably be a force for the next few years at least (young, strong, fast, talented). But to blame the loss on their mistakes ... well, it's like the Raiders, Steelers, Rams, Titans, Colts, etc, etc ... they all said the same thing. I think the only year it didn't happen much was 04/05.
edit: Oh, and LT equals LaDainian Tomlinson these days ... it hasn't meant "coke-addled linebacker who's a scary force on the field" for a few years now.