In addition to some questionable play calling of which Brady had a hand in, he also didn't play that great. His most obvious bad play of the day came right before halftime when he threw an ill-advised pass in the direction of Rob Gronkowski. While it looked like the Patriots had a guaranteed 3 points in their back pocket and one more attempt at 7 coming up, Manti Te'o kept the Chargers' lead intact with a timely interception.
Another reason why this victory will not win a beauty pageant would have to be Brandon "JoJo" LaFell's first fumble of the season. While turnovers never feel good, those which lead directly to 7 points sting even worse.
In addition to blocking the second punt of the game to give the Patriots possession on the Chargers' 25 yard line, special teams was terrific all day long. Not including the blocked punt, New England's average field position after punts and kickoffs was the 29 and 23 yard line respectively. Conversely, the Chargers' offense started inside their twenty for both kickoffs (18.6 yard line) and punts (17.2 yard line). Not considering Brian Tyms personal foul penalty, Ryan Allen pinned them inside the 20 on 4 of 5 kicks.
Offensively, the standouts were Julian Edelman (8 catches for 141 yards and 1 touchdown, 1 rush for 4 yards, 3 punt returns for 20 yards), Rob Gronkowski (8 catches for 87 yards and 1 yard) LeGarrette Blount (22 touches for 77 yards).
Defensively, Matt Patricia and the entire line get a gold star for holding the Chargers to 216 total yards, 130 yards less than normal. The group also held the third most efficient team to 4 for 13 on third downs. Individuals who get a special call out are Jamie Collins (2 sacks, 9 tackles), Rob Ninkovich (1 sack, 5 tackles) and Darrelle Revis (3 tackles and island ownership).
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