For Bill! New England Patriots bury San Diego Chargers, 38-14
Too bad for San Diego Chargers they don’t have NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in their lineup, because he’s the only one so far this season who’s been able to put a dent in the New England Patriots.
The much anticipated game between San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots turned out to be a one-side affair. While the Chargers put up much of more of a fight in the trenches than the poorly coached New York Jets did a week earlier, it didn’t do them much good as New England abused Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, and San Diego’s secondary, and runningback LaDanian Tomlinson, and Chargers coaching staff and everybody else associated with the Chargers.
Right guard Stephen Neal was out with an injury (supposedly a shoulder injury, but who knows) so highly capable back-ups Billy Yates and Russ Hochstein filled in, with Yates as the starter. The line wasn’t quite as tight against Chargers as it was against the poorly coached New York Jets, but then again the Jets aren’t nearly as good as the Chargers. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took shots from all directions, though really only once from each direction and he often got near-perfect protection and certainly got good enough protection enough times to pick apart San Diego’s secondary.
Both Jets and Chargers repeatedly saved themselves from giving up long runs to New England runningback Laurence Maroney by basically outrunning the blockers downfield and make tackles after 5-10 yard gains rather than getting beaten square at the line of scrimmage and potentially giving up the long run. If Light, Mankins, Koppen et al can hold their blocks for a little longer beyond five yards downfield Maroney will be able to break some long runs. Of course, as long as Light, Mankins, Koppen et al shove defenses five yards downfield Patriots won’t need any long runs. And keep in mind that a) the Chargers have a tough and talented front seven and b) the Patriots didn’t use back-up tackle Ryan O’Callaghan nearly as often as they did against the Jets.
Charger inside linebacker Stephen Cooper made an excellent play on an off-tackle right on 1&10 from San Diego’s 13 in the second quarter when he stopped Sammy Morris for a gain of two yards (a short two, if you ask me). Patriots offensive linemen and tightends were hat-on-hat, yet Cooper managed to slip through to make the tackle. How did he do it? Cooper, who was the backside inside linebacker on the play lined up close to the line of scrimmage and then tracked the play until he found Maroney’s gap, which he quickly stuffed. The playside inside and outside linebackers were well blocked and unable to help him. It was a solid play by Cooper and it illustrates the level of competition New England’s offensive linemen were up against.
It seems to me that Yates is a good deal better at run-blocking than pass protection, while left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right tackle Nick Kaczur, and Neal are all more or less equally good at both. That’s not to say Yates is bad at pass protection. If he were he would have been shipped out of town. But he does seem to have a run-pass skill gap and it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the season, if at all (having Yates on the field didn’t hamper the Patriots opening drive, which was no-huddle, spread-offense, all pass). I think Hochstein is a bit better at pass protection than run blocking.
Patriots made several really good and even great plays. Let’s start off with the scoring plays:
1) Tightend Ben Watson got wide open in the corner of San Diego’s end zone after wide receiver Randy Moss threw Chargers coverage scheme on the play into disarray simply by running a shallow crossing pattern. 7-0.
2) Wide receiver Randy Moss sliced open the seam in Chargers zone defense for a 23-yard touchdown pass from Brady. 14-0.
3) Inside linebacker Adalius Thomas picked off a short pass from Rivers on 3rd&1 intended for wide receiver Malcom Floyd and returned the ball 65 yards for a touchdown. As has been pointed out by just about everyone, hardly any of the Chargers made up any ground while chasing Thomas. Maybe Thomas really is that fast, maybe the Chargers just quit on that play. 24-0.
4) Moss’s second touchdown catch was quite similar to the first one in that Moss simply ran straight ahead, leaving the coverage eating dust. But while the first touchdown came down the right hashmark out of a spread shotgun formation at the end of a drive that until that point had used power formations and personnel, the second one came out of a power set with O’Callaghan, Brady and Watson lined up to the right and Moss split left. Moss sprinted down the sideline and for some reason the Chargers left him uncovered. 31-7
5) Sammy Morris skipped into the endzone over the backs of Light, Mankins and fullback Heath Evans who had driven their respective defenders into the ground. 38-14.
Now for the plays that stopped San Diego’s drives:
1) San Diego’s very first drive was stopped cold on the very first snap when Rosevelt Colvin picked off a Rivers pass.
2) San Diego’s second drive ended when Randall Gay wrapped up Chargers masterful tightend Antonio Gates a couple of yards shy of first down. Gay also had a nice pass break-up on the preceding play. On the third-down play, Colvin failed to bring down Gates with a no-arms missile-style tackle. That’s bad tackling in my book.
3) San Diego’s third drive was rolling along nicely until Colvin sacked and stripped Rivers and nose tackle Vince Wilfork recovered the loose ball.
4) San Diego’s fourth drive was stopped by back-up defensive lineman Santonio Thomas and safety James Sanders on 3rd&1. Thomas stood up and shed tightend Brandon Manumaleuna while the Chargers’ left offensive tackle had to block down on Thomas who was right up on the line of scrimmage.
5) San Diego’s fifth drive ended with Thomas’s pick. The play was set-up by magnificent pass coverage by cornerback Ellis Hobbs on first down and a combo tackle by Junior Seau and Eugene Wilson on Gates on second down.
6) San Diego’s sixth drive got off to a good start with Tomlinson carrying the ball but ended when a heavy pass rush forced Rivers to dump the ball to runningback Michael Turner who was brought down by a great open-field tackle by Sanders short of the first down. Rivers was almost sacked on the play by Warren who fought his way across the pocket from right to left - seen from Chargers’ perspective - before lunging at Rivers to force the dump off.
Chargers got their offense on track in the second half, scoring touchdowns on back to back possessions, bringing the score to 31-14. They put themselves in a position to make it a two-score after the forced and recovered a fumble by Hobbs on a kick-off return, but were shut down by Patriots’ pass rush. First Vrabel blew right through the generally ineffective Manumaleuna’s block to sack Rivers for a loss of ten yards, then Colvin sacked Rivers for another 10 yards and on 3rd & 30 Rivers half-heartedly threw the ball away as the screen play the Chargers were trying to set up was corralled even as it was developing.
Chargers’ last drive ended with Rivers underthrowing Tomlinson.
Then there was this grab bag of other plays:
- On Patriots opening drive Kevin Faulk made a crucial blitz-pick up when Yates stepped to his right and left a lane open for a Chargers pass rusher (the aforementioned Cooper). Faulk’s block gave Brady time to hit Wes Welker over the middle for 34 yards. That block illustrated three of Faulk’s qualities: His fine understanding of football, his quickness, and his blocking technique. Somewhat worryingly, Yates made an anemic and ineffective block against a delay blitz on the same play. I should stress that I don’t know who Yates should have blocked. It could be that he was supposed to help Kaczur. It just seems a bit odd that that would have been the case.
- On New England’s third drive Welker badly outfaked a Charger defender and raced ahead for a first down on 2nd & 15. The move was quite similar to one Welker made against the Jets, but that time three defenders quickly converged on him and closed all lanes. This time around Welker got an opportunity to go one-on-one and he took the ball to the sticks. He made the kind of play that will force opposing defensive coordinators to worry about how to cover and contain him.
- Welker made a slightly less spectacular but still quite nifty catch-move-and-run earlier that drive for 11 for yards. Welker ought to stop spiking the ball after every dadgum catch he makes, partly because it looks ridiculous and partly because he is going to draw a penalty sooner or later.
- Tightend Kyle Brady made a sweet block on Shawne Merriman on the backside of a running play. Merriman was trying to chase down the play but Brady, running alongside, lowered his shoulder and ploughed the San Diego linebacker into the dirt. Brady is a beast.
- Wide receiver Donte Stallworth showed good hands and toughness when he hung on to the ball for a first down in spite of getting nailed the moment he made the reception. He made a similar catch in the fourth quarter.
- Moss continued to show that he’s not only an almost uncoverable big-play receiver but also an excellent possession receiver.
- Maroney made a subtle move on a run in the fourth quarter that froze Cooper. It was first and ten from New England’s 35-yard line. Maroney took a step right, drawing Cooper out of position, then cut hard to the left tackle where Brady, Light, Mankins and a pulling Yates (who was injured on the play) opened up a huge gap. Maroney picked up 14 yards before Cooper brought him down.
- The problems that the offensive line had with looping pass rushers in the pre-season game against the Tennessee Titans resurfaced on the first play of New England’s fifth drive. Merriman looped from left outside in over the middle. Hochstein was engaged with Cooper while Koppen blocked nose tackle Jamal Lewis. Kaczur tried to follow Merriman but failed. Kaczur’s hunting Merriman also resulted in defensive end Otis Leverette breaking free from tight end Brady.
The funniest moment came in the fourth quarter when Kaczur viciously cut-block a whole lot of air. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good cut block, but the defensive end he was going after pulled back just as Kaczur went after him. I wouldn’t be surprised Kaczur’s belly flop will be played for laughs in the team’s offensive-line film sessions.
Some other notes:
- Patriots had Vrabel and Colvin switch sides frequently.
- Hochstein made some nice blocks on special teams and Eric Alexander logged a couple of tackles. The wedge on the opening kick-off return looked a little ragged though
- Colvin drew a delay of game penalty for trying to provoke an illegal procedure call.
- Light gave up a sack on the fourth drive. He was basically outrun to the outside.
- Merriman stopped Patriots’ fourth drive when he crashed in unblocked off New England’s left edge to tackle Morris for a loss on 3&2. It looked like he ran into an impregnable pile of Chargers, but it really was Merriman who made the stop.
- A key play on Chargers second scoring drive was a screen pass right to Turner. Linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Chad Brown were cut down by the screen, giving Turner a clear path to Patriots 13 yard line, from where Rivers hit Gates for a touchdown. I think the Patriots were expecting a screen pass on the touchdown play.
