MORSE: Clearing the Notepad from Playoff Victory VS Chargers

As I stated after the game, the Patriots’ defense won the game. Here are some facts that back that up.

According to Greg Harvey of Opta Stats and referenced in Clutch Points, the Patriots “allowed zero touchdowns, piled up six sacks, held Los Angeles under 100 rushing yards, and kept them below 150 net passing yards.” In the Super Bowl era, “those numbers once belonged only to the fabled 1985 Bears. Now, they also belong to this Patriots defense. Under the stadium lights, it felt like time folded in on itself as blue jerseys swarmed every snap and refused to blink.”

Zak Kuhr had a great game plan for the Chargers. He blitzed way more than the Patriots had a tendency to do. The 4-man pass rush was ineffective in the 1^st half. Part of the problem was due to a lack of discipline by the rushers, which allowed Justin Herbert to break the pocket and make big gains when he scrambled. One change was having Christian Elliss as a spy on Herbert. The other was the blitz to speed up Herbert. During the regular season, the Patriots blitzed on 26.6% of the time. In the 1^st half, they blitzed at 34.4% of the time. In the second half, they upped that to 42% of the time. Ironically, Herbert was 2^nd in the league when passing against the Blitz. Another wrinkle was a Cover “0” defense with 4 DBs in man-to-man and np deep safety. Everyone else rushed the passer. The Patriots pulled this on the 4^th and Goal at the 2-yard line. That forced a wild pass out of bounds by Herbert. The Patriots did this 4 times in the game and Herbert completed only one pass for 8 yards.

Next Gen stats had Herbert 7 for 16, 44% completion %, 69 yards, 4.0 yards per attempt, and a 56.5 QB Rating.

Mike Girardi had the Patriots at 58% blitz rate.

Pro Football Focus had the Patriots at 56.8% Blitz rate. They also had the Patriots with an incredible amount of 37 Pressures on Herbert.

How good was Christian Gonzalez? Next Gen stats had him targeted 5 times with 0 catches allowed and 2 Pass Breakups. Gonzalez got snubbed in the All-Pro voting. He has a league low -9.7 Reception Against Over Expected.

I thought the Offensive line didn’t play up to expectations! The two rookies struggled in pass protection. However, the Offensive line grades from PFF were a lot better than I thought they would be.

	LA Chargers
	Offense	Pass Blck	Run Blck	Sacks	QB Hits	Hurries	Pressure
Campbell	75.6	60.8	84.3	1	0	4	5
25′ Season	74	75.1	71
Wilson	58.2	40.6	64.1	2	0	4	6
	49.9	42.8	62.2
Bradbury	56.7	79.4	47.3	0	0	1	1
	59.8	55.7	63.1
Onwenu	71.5	83.3	63.6	0	0	1	1
	78.2	74.2	78.2
Moses	68	83.5	52	0	0	0	0
	74	69.8	77.1

The lower set of numbers references the players’ 2025 stats.

SB Nation had this to say about the Patriots. “If the Defense is like this every week, the Patriots are going to be tough to beat, especially because their Offense should perform better moving forward as well.”

The huge momentum swing occurred after the Chargers’ tipped ball interception. The Chargers started 1st and goal at the Patriots’ 10-yard line, and the Patriots’ defense stoned them and got a turnover on downs at the 2-yard line. The Patriots were able to move it right down the field for a Field Goal. This was against what was the worst Red Zone defense by the Patriots during the regular season.

The Pats defense held the Chargers to 3.5 yards per play.

The 4^th and 4 catch by rookie Kyle Williams was a huge play in the game. He made Chargers DB Cam Hart do a face plant on his move and took the ball in on the sideline and got both feet down. Hart by the way, recorded no tackles in the game.

Another move that Zak Kuhr did was to have Gonzalez and Carlton Davis stand in the middle of the field before the Chargers huddle broke, and then they moved to their assigned matchup on whichever side of the field they went to. Also on third down, Kuhr switched Gonzalez on Herbert’s third down binkie, Keenan Allen, and Gonzalez took him away.

Marcus Jones was huge in this game, and his one-on-one tackle of Herbert at the 2-yard line set up the 4^th down stop.

The Chargers fired Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman and Offensive Line coach Mike Devlin.

The Patriots have the slowest Kickoff Return pair in the league. Johnson ran a 4.8 40-yard dash, and Efton Chism ran a 4.7.

The Patriots got away with one when Milt Williams clubbed Herbert across the top of the head for a sack. The Referee expert Terry McCauley for the NBC broadcast was adamant during the game that it should have been called Roughing the Passer. He wasn’t covering for his old buddies the Officials. I have to agree with him that it was Roughing the Passer and should have been called.

Comings and Goings

On Monday the Patriots released RB D’Ernest Johnson. They also released Tackle Sebastian Gutierrez from the Practice Squad

Today, they signed CB Miles Battle, RB D’Ernest Johnson, T Lorenz Metz, and WR Trent Sherfield to the Practice Squad. The corresponding moves were to release DL Fabien Lovett and WR Brandon Smith.

The Patriots have an open roster spot with CB Alex Austin in the third week of his three-week window to be activated off IR.

Like this article?
Support Mark and buy him a coffee.

About Mark Morse

Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.

View all posts by Mark Morse