Case in point, on Sunday afternoon the Patriots' offense completely dominated a very good Los Angeles Chargers' defense, running 82 plays for 414 yards in total offense and controlled the game clock to the tune of an almost two-to-one advantage - and with those kinds of numbers one might expect that they blew the Chargers right out of Gillette Stadium...
...except that the New England offense stalled in the Chargers' quarter of the field on five consecutive drives and six drives overall, settling for field goal attempts and in the end scoring just twenty-one points, which is their second-lowest point output of the season.
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| White led all receivers in Patriots' win over Chargers |
Fortunately for them, the Patriots' defense rose to occasion once again, continuing their upward trend from the worst defense in the league at the start of the season to one of the best at the midway point as New England won their fourth straight game to go into their bye week at 6-2, the best record in the American Football Conference.
The Chargers came into Sunday's contest as the best sub-.500 team in the National Football League, and if it weren't for a handful of bad breaks, they might have come out the best .500 team in the NFL.
After losing four straight to start the season, the Chargers had won three in a row and were poised to make a huge statement in the AFC West, where they trailed the Denver Broncos by just a half a game and division leading Kansas City by two games - three of their four losses were by two points or less and two of their three wins have been by five points or less - only a fourteen point loss to Kansas City and a 21 point shutout of the Broncos last Sunday, bucking the nail-biting trend.
So it shouldn't have come as a shock to anyone that the score was as close as it was, though the Patriots missed several opportunities to put the Chargers away throughout the second half.
New England was just one-of-four in the red zone on Sunday, their only conversion a short Tom Brady toss to tight end Rob Gronkowski on a drive that answered a quick Chargers' score and knotted the score at seven a piece.
A superb special teams play on a poor decision by Chargers' punt returner Travis Benjamin resulted in a safety for the Patriots that gave them a lead they wouldn't relinquish, but the ensuing New England possession stalled at the Los Angeles six and the first of six Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempts split the uprights to make the score 12-7.
The next Patriots' possession also stalled in the red zone, forcing Gostokowski onto the field to make the lead eight points going into the room at halftime, then Gostkowski missed an opportunity to increase the point total by three from 43 yards after Dion Lewis returned the opening kickoff of the second half 75 yards to the Los Angeles 25 yard line...
...though Gostkowski came through from the same distance on the next Patriots' possession to make the lead eleven, then hit on a 26-yarder in the fourth quarter to provide the final score after another Patriots' red zone appearance stalled, this one inside the 10-yard line.
Both Chargers' scores were quick-six big plays, the first was a Melvin Gordon 87 yard touchdown romp to give Los Angeles a quick early lead and their second score was a 24 yard strike from quarterback Phillip Rivers to Benjamin - and they nearly had two others.
One was a 42-yard bomb hauled in by receiver Ty Williams, who was called for an illegal touching of the ball after being forced out of bounds by Patriots' cornerback Johnson Bademosi, then coming back inbounds to be the first player to touch the ball - and the second one also involved both players, as Williams set an illegal pick on Bademosi that freed up Benjamin for a 41-yard catch and run.
But while the Patriots were having a tough time converting in the red zone, the Chargers were having an ever tougher time getting inside the New England twenty - the closest they came was the Patriots' 23-yard line on the final play of the game, when a Rivers' offering into the end zone was picked off by cornerback Jonathan Jones to end a potential game-tying scoring threat.
Rivers was 17 of 30 for only 212 yards and was sacked once, a costly twenty-yarder that was actually just Rivers falling on a fumbled ball - but Brady was sacked three times in his fifty dropbacks, completing 32 of the 47 balls that left his hand for 333 yards and the touchdown to Gronkowski.
But it was the Patriots' running backs that were the keys to the victory, as the quartet of Dion Lewis, James White, Rex Burkhead and Mike Gillislee combined for 258 of New England's 414 total yards.
White and Burkhead lead all pass catchers in receiving yardage with 85 and 68 yards a piece as Brady checked down frequently to attack the Chargers linebackers, while Lewis and Gillislee paced the New England ground attack with 44 and 34 yards, respectively. Gronkowski and Chris Hogan were to only other factors in the passing game, each catching five balls for the Patriots.
Gordon gained 132 yards on 14 carries, but aside from his 87-yard scamper for the game's first score, New England's defense shut him and the rest of the Chargers' backs down for just 70 yards on 20 carries, a 3.5 yard per carry effort that did Los Angeles no favors, while Benjamin and fellow-speedster Keenan Allen were held to five catches a piece for 64 and 61 yards, respectfully.
As one might suppose, the Patriots' offense and defense are trending in different directions heading into the second half of the season.
As mentioned, the defense started the season being the worst defense in the league over the first four games, but have turned that around to become one of the best units in the league - slowly climbing out of a big hole dug when they allowed 457 yards per game to their opponents by allowing just 377 yards per game in their last four...
...and have become one of the best scoring defenses in the NFL by allowing a meager 12.75 points per game over their last four games, a huge 20-point per game improvement over their first four, when they were a sieve-like in allowing 32 points per game.
The offense? They have remained steady in total yardage at just over 410 yards per game, but their point production has taken a precipitous nose-dive, going from 32 points per game to just shy of twenty-two.
When asked about the offense and whether he prefers the low-scoring, grind-it-out style that has become the Patriots' hallmark during their current four-game winning streak, head ball coach Bill Belichick minced no words.
"I prefer to win." he said, matter-of-factly.
Winning is what his Patriots are doing, though it has rarely been easy - but that could be an advantage to his team, as they have won six games by an average of one touchdown per game, displaying the intestinal fortitude required to win games in December and January.
And, hopefully, February.
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