Something was wrong, all wrong. The Chargers basically gave the Patriots a very late Christmas present by deciding not to pressure Tom Brady. I think the whole world was surprised not to see the Chargers adjust their defense to stop the relentless attack by Brady and the New England Patriots. They say you live and die by the blitz, but the Chargers died by not blitzing! The Los Angeles Chargers had no chance on Sunday, but we didn’t know that until shortly after kickoff. The Chargers’ coaching staff was clearly overmatched by Bill Belichick and his crew. Los Angeles’ game plan used mostly six and seven defensive backs, like they did last week against the Baltimore Ravens, then they played back in a zone. Like Tom Brady had never seen that before.
The Chargers stopped absolutely nothing. There was no pass rush. They couldn’t stop the run. Brady cut them up with a billion short passes against the backed-up extra safeties. We’ve seen this all before, against many, many different teams.
Stop if you’ve heard this one, too: The Patriots are moving on to the AFC championship game with the 41-28 win. Brady was 23-of-29 for 233 yards and Sony Michel had 105 yards and three touchdowns … before halftime. Brady set an NFL record with his 227th straight postseason pass without an interception, a streak that dates back to Super Bowl LI. It was a rout. New England will play at the Kansas City Chiefs next Sunday with a Super Bowl berth on the line. Amazingly, it’s the eighth straight AFC championship game for the Patriots.
The biggest factor in the Patriots’ dynasty, which dates back to their first Super Bowl win at the end of the 2001 season, is that Belichick and his staff can out-maneuver anyone, and Brady knows exactly how to execute the plan, no matter what it is. That was clear on Sunday. The biggest mismatch of the game happened behind the scenes on Monday and Tuesday, when the coaching staffs started putting together their game plans.
Bill Belichick and his staff are Sunday’s MVPs
The Chargers were out-coached. They’re not the first team that has happened to, and they won’t be the last.
The lack of adjustments from Chargers defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was troubling. CBS analyst Tony Romo was pointing out through the first half how the Patriots were beating the Chargers’ zone coverages, and he implored them to run more man coverage. They didn’t.
“It’s just too easy for Tom,” Romo said late in the first half, when the score was 35-7. “You’re going to play zone, he’s going to throw underneath and beat the pressure.”
FINAL: The @Patriots defeat the Chargers in the Divisional Round! #NFLPlayoffs #EverythingWeGot
(by @Lexus) pic.twitter.com/ZbkDr7HL1T
— NFL (@NFL) January 13, 2019
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