Over-Charged: San Diego Takes Control in Second Half, Cruises To Victory

Boston is a baseball city. Everything else—football, or otherwise—comes after.
And, on a day when New England’s collective gaze was trained on Jacobs Field and Fenway Park, the Patriots did little to verify that there happened to be a gridiron dynasty worth watching.
The San Diego Chargers (2-2) rolled over an injury-riddled New England team by a score of 41-17 yesterday, dealing the Patriots (2-2) their first home defeat since the New York Jets visited Massachusetts on Dec. 22, 2002.
A capacity Gillette Stadium crowd—New England’s 119th in a row—began to file out early in the fourth quarter, a sight as unfamiliar in Foxborough as a missed Adam Vinatieri field goal.
But both, conspicuously, happened yesterday. Vinatieri shanked a 37-yarder, his first miss in 35 consecutive tries within the 47-yard line, and the Patriots squandered their opening drive of the game.
As the ball fell right, a hush fell over the crowd.
New England, ultimately, wouldn’t get too many opportunities better than its first.
“San Diego was the better team,” New England head coach Bill Belichick said. “They outplayed us. They out-coached us. They played extremely well.”
Belichick, of course, has never been one for emotion, but yesterday he seemed noticeably morose.
“There isn’t a guy out there that didn’t make a play for them,” he said. “They have a lot of weapons. You take one away, they’ve got three or four other guys to go to.”
Perhaps the best of them all was running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who rumbled for 134 clock-killing yards on 25 carries to accompany two touchdowns. The pair of scores extended his NFL record for consecutive games with a rushing touchdown to 16 contests.
“Offensively, we just didn’t do enough to help our defense out,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said. “We couldn’t stay on the field. We didn’t really convert at all on third down there in the second half. We didn’t throw it like we wanted to. We didn’t run it. And it just puts too much pressure on the defense.”
New England actually took a 17-all stalemate into the half, but Brady threw for just 21 of his 224 yards over the final two quarters. The Patriots, consequently, produced no points at all on 46 yards after the break.
Running back Corey Dillon recorded just 63 yards on 14 carries, although he did score New England’s first touchdown with 2:21 remaining in the first quarter.
“We just didn’t really live up to our end of the bargain there,” Brady said.
San Diego’s Drew Brees shone throughout, however, going 19-of-24 for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
Brees played the role to which Brady is accustomed, mixing in screens and dump-offs to pick apart a secondary thay was missing safety Rodney Harrison and cornerbacks Duane Starks and Tyrone Poole.
Harrison, who suffered a knee injury last week against Pittsburgh, will be missed for the remainder of the season.
“It’s not only the physical things [Harrison] does,” Brees said. “It’s the leadership, the mental toughness, what he imparts to his teammates.”
Brees effectively put the game away in the third quarter when he launched a 28-yard rainbow strike to Reche Caldwell in the corner of the end-zone, making it 31-17.
Tight end Antonio Gates nearly caught the rest by himself with six catches for 108 yards.
“They execute their plays well. They can run it, they can throw it,” Belichick said. “They can beat you with a short game, they can beat you with a deep game. They can run inside, they can run outside.”
If Sunday’s drubbing was any indication, the Patriots need to come up with a serious solution to teams like the Chargers.
New England might have a bit of a regional grace period, though.
Baseball playoffs start this week.
—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.