New England Patriots
The Chargers fell behind early and could not muster sufficient offense to match the Patriots.
Bill Belichick had a hunch that issues could be troublesome for the Chargers in the event that they needed to play from behind in opposition to the Patriots throughout final Sunday’s NFL wild-card matchup.
He talked about the Chargers’ offensive line woes after dropping tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt to season-ending accidents, together with Justin Herbert’s injured arms as the explanation why a Los Angeles comeback would have been troublesome.
Drake Maye and the Patriots’ offense had been removed from their greatest on Sunday, scoring only one landing late within the fourth quarter. However, the Patriots constructed an early lead with three field-goals from Andy Borregales by no means gave it up.
Now that the sport is within the books, Belichick supplied his ideas on it throughout a recent episode of the podcast “Let’s Go!”
“I believed that the Chargers would have bother in the event that they needed to play from behind,” Belichick stated. “They had been by no means ready actually to get forward and to have management of the sport. And as soon as it grew to become a two rating sport and the passes elevated and the stress elevated, that simply didn’t bode properly for the Chargers.”
Maye gave the Chargers the ball in their very own red-zone throughout the first quarter when a go was tipped and finally intercepted. With first-and-goal on the ten, the Chargers wanted simply ten yards to punch the ball in for a landing. They got here up quick, gaining simply eight.
“They’d an ideal alternative early within the sport, didn’t hit it on fourth down, then obtained the ball on a turnover contained in the 10-yard line, couldn’t capitalize on that,” Belichick stated. “These had been type of their probabilities to get some factors and type of flip the script and drive the Patriots to play from behind. However they had been by no means ready to try this.”
The Patriots wore the Chargers down, and Maye broke the sport open with a landing go to Hunter Henry within the fourth. Herbert was beneath stress all evening, and the Patriots’ pass-rush produced six sacks.
“As soon as the Patriots performed from forward, and I’d say within the second half, you realize, Josh [McDaniels] actually obtained the offense on monitor and so they had been extra constant transferring the ball,” Belichick stated. “After which, defensively the Patriots performed from forward and so they performed properly with their go rush and put quite a lot of stress on Herbert, which is a matter that the Chargers have had since their rash of accidents this season.”
Get the most recent Boston sports activities information
Obtain updates in your favourite Boston groups, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
