But actually, pretty mediocre day by the Patriots offense. Let's look at the stats:
Brady 32/47 for 333 and 1 TD. Looks good but Brady wasn't as sharp as usual this week (or really for the last few weeks). Brady wasn't sacked that often but was throwing quite a few balls too low for his receivers, or off point. Sometimes his receivers bailed him out but Brady had the opportunity for more TD's against a weaker secondary.
Rushing offense wasn't great but again, it wasn't supposed to be. Only 97 yards off 32 rushes wasn't great, and was often the reason why drives stalled at the Chargers 30, 40 yard line.
Receiving was okay, Gronk looked like he could have had an extra throw or two. Brandin Cooks wasn't really there at all in the second half, probably because the pass rush didn't give Brady any time to look deep for most of the time.
OLine gave up 3 sacks but Brady was having to move around in the pocket quite a bit as well. They didn't run block as well and the longest run of the day was just 9 yards. A few penalties too.
Defense wise, our rush defense let up that big play against Gordon but was solid for the rest of the game. Let up around 70 yards on 20 carries which was helpful. That Gordon play was a pretty bad screw up though.
Pass defense was good for most of the day, limiting Rivers to under 200 yards passing before Garbage Time. Butler had a few slip-ups like on the Benjamin touchdown, but hopefully the return of Gilmore (yes, I know) and Rowe will help out. It seemed Bademosi was pretty solid too. Not much negatives, especially considering that the Chargers offense almost had the same numbers of plays as the Patriots rushed. Numbers wise, the Chargers had 38 plays for 369 yards of total offense. It looks really ugly considering the Patriots were less efficient (89 plays for just 414 yards of offense). Overall, the scoreboard showed the defense was good, but it wasn't as dominant as you might think.
Pass Rush was still an issue.
Special Teams helped dictate the game. Amendola and Lewis had some good returns there (even though the Pats couldnt capitalize off Lewis' run). Gostkowski was the negative for ST, missing 2 field goals out there. Makes me wonder what Belichick's thinking after an obvious decline from 2015 days.
Overall, Patriots pulled out a win but offense was below average that game considering the amount of opportunities they had. Defense was good, but the scoreboard was misleading. Things to think about during the bye week and possibly areas to improve on during trade deadline.
