Remembering 2011 – Game 2 hosting San Diego

Since the home winning streak entered historically great territory, the lore has been that the Patriots are unbeatable at home. While that would later be broken in this season by the New York Giants (a game whose elements prefigure the Super Bowl in some ways), the Patriots’ home opener was another win in the series.

Much would be made later in the season, much would be made of Philip Rivers’ season-long “funk”, but his shootout performance against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 looked like customary Rivers: A gaudy passing performance (33/48 for 335 yards, 2TD) peppered with the occasional interception (2).

Despite Foxboro’s 12^th man, Rivers looked much as he did the previous week at the Vikings, going 29 of 40 with 2TDs and 2 interceptions. However, the reason the Chargers would ultimately lose is turnover battle 4 to 0, and as a subscriber to the beliefs of Cold Hard Football Facts: the team that wins the turnover battles win games (just ask the 2011 San Francisco 49ers). The price of Rivers’ airing out the football was his two costly interceptions.

However, much like Chad Henne’s career day last week, Philip Rivers exposed the secondary in the frequent times he wasn’t pressured.  I’ve mentioned before the idea that I’d rather have a great secondary with a competent front line than the converse (mainly because quick-release West Coast and Coryell systems usually can adequately advance the ball against pass-rush plays).

The Patriots’ defense had been on the decline since the 2008 season, but has almost always usually fared well in the Red “Area” due to the sheer depth of the Offense. But, as in this game, the majority of the field was fair game, with three different Chargers receivers catching a pass for greater than 20 yards. For the Stretch, the defensive backs were either getting slipped past in the press or were allowing too much space in the zone.

Anyway, the Patriots front seven easily looked like the best part of the defense: it forced two fumbles this game, and when they rushed the passer, they rushed the passer. And fortunately, while the Patriots’ secondary looked bad without being that bad (they mostly held Rivers scoreless in the bookpage quarterss), the offense made the Chargers’ secondary look similar. Branch and Gronk both got 30+ yard receptions (and a byproduct of this was Ochocino—I’m sorry, I mean The Wideout Formerly Known as Ochocinco [more like formerly known as Employed]—had one of his more productive days with two receptions both over 15 yards; I shouldn't rag on Ochocinco, but I defended him all of last year and thought he'd finally get the offense with a full offseason only to find out he didn't know the plays, and basically made up all of his routes during his time in Cincinnati).

This game was also the breakout game of the Two Tight End Offense, with all passing touchdowns registered by the tight ends. Looking at Belichick’s draft history, it’s peppered with tight ends; I think this year is when he got the reverse-Jimmie-Johnson-player (instead of small and fast, strong and tall) in the packages he wanted with Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski.

Finally: Who doesn’t love Vince Wilfork? The fans love him, ex-NFL players love him, hell even The Onion loves him, and we here at The Flying Elvis also love him.  It was really fun to see him get an interception.