FOXBOROUGH \u2013 It\u2019s too bad that the Patriots took their foot\noff the gas pedal in the second half, or else they may have dropped 60 on the\nLos Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps Bill Belichick is saving some points for next week\u2019s\nAFC Championship Game, and they will need all they can get against the Kansas\nCity Chiefs on the road. But in what was\nthe final home game for the Patriots for the 2018 season, it was a total\ndomination of a 13-4 team who was a perfect 9-0 in road games. The Chargers looked totally beaten at\nhalftime, and only because the Patriots seemed to want to relax in the second\nhalf was the score as close as it was. \nThe Patriots earned a trip to their eighth straight AFC Championship\nGame with a 41-28 win on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, leaving the Chargers\nfrustrated and humiliated in their wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the Patriots play next Sunday night like they did today,\nthey have a chance to make it to Super Bowl LIII. Tom Brady was surgical in the first half, Sony\nMichel did a lot to justify his first-round selection, Julian Edelman and James\nWhite looked like Super Bowl LI all over again, and the defense was mostly\ndominating except for a few long plays to Keenan Allen and going into autopilot\nin the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots scored touchdowns on the first five drives of the\ngame, a franchise first for a postseason game. \nThey scored field goals on their first two drives of the second\nhalf. Ryan Allen did not punt until the\nfourth quarter. The only drive prior to\nthat which failed was at the end of the first half, when Phillip Dorsett failed\nto get out of bounds to stop the clock on fourth down, and the Patriots, with\nno timeouts left, could not get a field goal attempt off in time (which would\nhave been a 49-yard attempt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chargers made a comeback in the second half and wound up\noutscoring the Patriots 21-6, but this only served to mask the outcome. The Patriots held a 41-14 lead with 12:23\nleft in the fourth quarter, and school was out. \nThe Patriots treaded water the rest of the way, and the game was over quick\nbut took forever to complete. But make\nno mistake, this win was all Patriots, and the Chargers, seemingly unafraid to\nplay on the road and expected to give the Patriots a tough game, were simply obliterated\nin every way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots outcoached, out-physicalled, outsmarted the Chargers. Game plans on both sides of the ball worked\nperfectly. Offensively, the Patriots\nmixed up the run and the pass perfectly. \nDefensively, the Patriots pressured Phillip Rivers all game long, never\nallowed him to get into a rhythm, and even found a way to shut down the running\ngame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brady was in his typical Canton-esque form, hitting on 34 of\n44 passes for 343 yards, one touchdown and a passer rating of 106.5. White tied the record set by Darren Sproles with\n15 pass receptions (for 97 yards), most ever in a postseason game in NFL\nhistory. Edelman had 151 receiving yards\non nine catches, with many of those yards after the catch and some of those\nyards gained with sheer strength and will. \nEdelman now has 98 career postseason catches, second most in NFL history\nbehind Jerry Rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, Rob Gronkowski had only one catch for 25 yards. But Gronk had a hand in the running game, and\nhad seal blocks on two of the touchdowns scored. Michel had a marvelous game, rushing for 129\nyards on 24 carries (a 5.4-yard average), and three touchdowns. As a team, the Patriots rushed for 155 yards\nand a 4.6-yard average. This attack\nhelped Brady greatly in the passing game, as it served to neutralize the pass\nrush threat from Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. \nMichel will be badly needed next week at Kansas City if the Patriots are\nto have a chance to pull out a win there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defensively, the Patriots held Rivers under 50% passing,\nsacked him twice, and held Allen to only two catches. Rivers was 25 of 51 passing for 331 yards,\nthree touchdowns, one interception, and an 81.4 passer rating. Ty Williams and Mike Williams had an aggregate\nten catches for 162 yards, as they used their height (both guys are\nsix-foot-four) to snag some difficult catches. \nAllen\u2019s two catches were a 43-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter\non blown coverage by Stephon Gilmore, and a 32-yard catch in the fourth quarter\nwhich was almost a touchdown, falling a yard short of the end zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rivers was able to find some yardage in the second half, as\nhe able to throw two of his three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. By then, the Patriots were just guarding\nagainst the big play, hoping no one got hurt, and pretty much just sat on the lead\nuntil the Chargers ran out of time. \nOffensively, the Patriots did basically nothing, just some benign runs\nto help kill clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twice the Chargers attempted onside kicks, and twice Nate\nEbner covered them perfectly to help seal the win, which was really a non-issue\nat halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By going soft in the second half, the Patriots maybe did\nthemselves a favor looking ahead to next week at Kansas City. The last thing Belichick would want to do is\nto show Andy Reid anything he can gameplan against with his team leading by more\nthan four scores. The first half,\nhowever, should give Reid plenty to pore through as he tries to come up with a\ngame plan to get his Chiefs to their first Super Bowl since the 1969 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s now eight AFC Championships in a row for the Patriots,\nextending their current record. When\nasked about that record in his postgame press conference, Belichick said that\nhe basically didn\u2019t care about that record or any previous Patriot team, just\nthis current one. He was also blunt\nabout preparing for Kansas City, saying only that they are the top team in the\nconference, being the one seed, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re on to Kansas City. \nWhen last the Patriots played at Arrowhead, all we heard was that we\nwere on to Cincinnati. This time, the\nPatriots want to say \u201cWe\u2019re on to Atlanta.\u201d \nOr, since it\u2019s the second game next Sunday, \u201cWe\u2019re on to (the NFC champ).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots will be underdogs against the Chiefs. You want the Patriots to be dogs rather than\nfaves anyday. Let the anticipation\nbegin. It should be, and can be, a game\nfor the ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s too bad that the Patriots took their foot
\noff the gas pedal in the second half, or else they may have dropped 60 on the
\nLos Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":21378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-patriots-playoffs"],"yoast_head":"\n