New England Patriots bully Justin Herbert and crush Los Angeles Chargers on winning return to NFL playoffs
Rams-Panthers was a high-scoring shootout. Bears-Packers went down to the final play of the game. Bills-Jaguars ended on a last-minute pick. Eagles-49ers saw the Super Bowl champs bow out just 21 yards away from the end zone.
Patriots-Chargers was none of that. It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t high-scoring and it did not come down to one final play.
On Sunday night, the Patriots defense was definitively the most dominant unit on the field – bringing constant pressure to stop Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles offense dead in their tracks drive after drive after drive.
The Patriots offense? Full of mistakes, miscues and self-inflicted errors.
Yet, second-year quarterback Drake Maye managed to just produce enough offense to put the Patriots back in the AFC Divisional round for the first time since 2019.
New England relied heavily on field goals to earn points until Maye connected for a touchdown and the eventual 16-3 victory over the Chargers in Foxborough.
The defining image of the Chargers’ playoff run: Justin Herbert lying on the ground after a sack
Herbert was sacked six times by the Patriots pass rush in a slogging 16-3 defeat on Sunday
This marks the third playoff loss for Herbert in his career, who was sacked a shocking six times on the night.
He only completed 19-of-31 passes for a paltry 159 yards while also rushing ten times for 57 yards.
Maye, on the other hand, completed 17-of-29 passes for 268 yards, one touchdown and an early interception.
In fact, it was that early interception that may have been the distilled essence of the Chargers evening.
Backed up inside their own 10-yard-line, Maye tossed a pick that deflected straight up in the air off the hands of tight end Austin Hooper.
The Chargers merely needed to gain ten yards to score a touchdown. If not, they could have made one of the shortest field goals they could have asked for.
Instead, they ran the ball three times before Herbert lofted a ball far over the head of Keenan Allen to turn the ball over on downs.
The only points the Chargers scored all night came on an 11 play, 69 yard drive that chewed up 6:40 of game time. Facing the exact same situation they did on the drive before, LA coach Jim Harbaugh made the right choice and trotted out the field goal unit to tie the game at 3-3.
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