Belichick, Pats Escape San Diego With a Victory

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

Although he’d never admit it, nobody was more relieved Sunday when Kris Brown’s attempt at a game-tying field goal grazed the right upright and missed wide right than Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

In what was almost an identical situation to the fourth-and-two disaster in Indianapolis last season, Belichick decided to have his offense go for it on fourth-and-one from the New England 49 yard line with two minutes to play leading 23-20.

BenJarvus Green Ellis ran left but was smothered by the San Diego defense giving the Chargers the ball at the Patriots 48 with just under two minutes left and all three time outs remaining.

Had San Diego marched down the field to win the game, it would have been déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say. Sports writers, talk show hosts and fans alike would have been consumed with the topic all week in New England second-guessing the great Bill Belichick. Instead, the Pats held on to win the game and that is all that really matters at this point.

What we have learned seven weeks into the season is that there is no dominant team in the NFL. There are no undefeated teams in the league and the Patriots are one of only three teams remaining with one loss so far.

Upsets are becoming ridiculously common. Who would have thought that the Cleveland Browns could go to New Orleans and defeat the world champion Saints? That’s exactly what happened on Sunday and it’s happening more and more each week across the league.

So I suppose that we should be happy, or at least satisfied, with a win like yesterdays. Not that it was perfect.

The Patriots young defense played relatively well again forcing four San Diego turnovers. But the Pats offense could not capitalize on those gifts.

Tom Brady and company could manage just 179 yards of total offense on the day, 128 through the air and a mere 51 on the ground. The 51 rushing yards came on 22 attempts for a dreadful 2.3 yards per carry.

New England’s offense converted just 25% of their third down opportunities (3-12) and went 1-2 on fourth down with their one miss coming at the most critical point of the game.

Special teams didn’t help matters either. With just under 7:30 minutes left in the game and up by 10, the Patriots kick return unit fell asleep at the switch allowing Kris Brown and the Chargers to successfully execute an on-sides kick. It led to a San Diego touchdown drive cutting the lead to a mere 3 points.

Still, in the end, the Pats were able to come out of San Diego with a win and that is something we should not take for granted.

As much as we would like to hold this franchise to the lofty standards of last decade when they won 3 Super Bowl titles and completed a perfect regular season, these are not the same Patriots.

This is a different team complete with different coaches and players alike and that is something we should not forget. For as frustrating as it was to watch the final 11 minutes of yesterdays game when New England went from up by 17 to hanging on for dear life, they managed to do enough good things to win the football game. And in a bottom line business like the NFL, winning games is the bottom line.

 

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