Knee Jerk Reaction to the Wild Card Playoff: Patriots vs. Chargers

Things to consider while admiring last night's clothing option, a look I call "The Vrabel":

--Enjoy this, my friends. And I don't just mean the Patriots recording their first postseason win since Super Bowl LIII. I'm talking about the fact that it's not every season you get to beat two different Harbaugh brothers. 

--As you can see, that handsome, silver fox (sorry ladies, some other lucky girl already snapped him up) pictured above was watching this one from the press box, so this is all coming from that perspective. I'll have none of the usual observations about what blithering, idiotic yip yap came out of Cris Collinsworth. And I didn't see the ads with the scrawny crossing guard guy who undergoes a humiliation ritual with the Kansas City Chiefs and his wife's boyfriend, Jake from State Farm. This is just what I was able to glean from a vantage point above Section 126. Make of that what you will. 

--For starters, I'll repeat what I said last night, the whole atmosphere in Gillette was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. Maybe because the last playoff game I'd been to was that 2003 Divisional game against Tennessee where it was so cold my cousin Phil (RIP) bought a bottle of water, and by the time he got back to our seats it had frozen solid. True story. That night we were making noise just to keep ourselves from lapsing into hypothermia. Last night, the crowd was bringing it from start to Victory Formation. From the pregame presentation, that was filled with a light show, pyrotechnics, a pump up speech from Stefon Diggs that had none of the inauthentic, self-serving, theatrical douchebaggery of the ones Ray Lewis used to play up to the cameras with. Diggs' was the genuine article. And they kept that energy level turned up to 11, right up to Milton Williams' sack that ended it. And if you work with someone who was there, go easy on them this morning. That rendition of "Your Love" that followed K'Lavon Chaisson's forced fumble was the loudest in the history of the stadium. They shouldn't be forced to talk in the workplace today.

--Before we get to Drake Maye's night, we're going to drill down quite a bit into the defense. Because simply put, they saved their best game of the season for the biggest moment. The comparisons to the aforementioned last postseason win are so accurate as to be uncanny. Both came against LA teams with no fanbase. Both held high scoring offenses with elite quarterbacks to just three points. All while their own MVP-candidate QB was struggling to get in the end zone until an insane throw to the tight end. And both included defensive game plans in which they mixed things up, went against type, and threw looks the opposing OC looks he was not ready for and could never adjust to. In his postgame, Robert Spillane said Chargers players came up to him after and said they had no idea what defense the Pats were ever in. I'll get to that.

--First, let's look at the plays we're already mentioned. Williams played like he did when he could've easily been the MVP of last year's Super Bowl. He spent as much in LA's backfield than the referee, with two sacks, two QB hits, and two TFLs. And the WWE finishing move on 4th down, that even Cris Collinsworth couldn't ruin by singing The O'Jays. This rip move that ragdolled Bradley Bozeman before he made Vrabel taste his own blood:

--And Chaisson's forced fumble that killed an earlier drive. In the early going, Zach Kuhr was content to rush four, try and win the one-on-one battles, and keep Justin Herbert kenneled up like a good boy, not running around chewing everything up. But as the game progressed, he started sending more 5-man rushes, stunts and games. Overall they sent an extra rusher on give or take half of Herbert's drop backs. Or at least would walk Spillane or Christian Elliss up to the line of scrimmage to spy Herbert. So on the fumble, Elliss stunted behind an interior push from Christian Barmore and Leonard Taylor, as Chaisson put Trey Pipkins on Heelys and rode him all the way back into Herbert:

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--The reason Vrabel and Zuhr had the luxury of sending extra rushers was that his secondary was taking care of their business like they were conducting Operation Absolute Resolve. (I'm not discussing the geopolitics; I'm just pointing out that was a brilliant, perfectly executed military exercise.) Consider:

--And Gonzalez had two PBUs in those five targets. None better than this one for the highlight reel, where he gave Quentin Johnston a cushion, basically baiting Herbert into seeing an open man where one was very, very covered and nearly came up with the pick:

--Herbert is a 6-year veteran. OC Greg Roman has been around the league for ages. And yet the coverages they were looking at were a complete mystery to them. Suddenly they were your grandparents who need help to log onto their Amazon account running Bletchley Park and trying to the Engima Code. Broadly speaking, they played straight man in the early downs, with Gonzo on Johnston, Carlton Davis on Keenan Allen, and Marcus Jones on Ladd McConkey. That last matchup you might remember from last year's utterly non-competitive Week 17 game against the Chargers was an unmitigated disaster. But Jones is exponentially better in coverage than he was last year. And last night, with some safety help, he kept McConkey bottled up, with just 32 total yards. 

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--And no coverage that crew threw at Herbert was better or more significant than the 4th & goal stop that kept it a 0-0 game. The Chargers went into a 3-man bunch. The Patriots countered with "Lock & Level," which is everyone taking a man like it's 3-on-3 basketball. But where they line up at different levels to avoid picks and rubs. No one came open, the Pats sent six rushers, Spillane, Barmore and Elijah Ponder turned the LA backfield into a Home Security commercial, and Herbert had to settle for a desperate heave that had no chance:

One play later, the Patriots were at midfield. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

--What was so confounding to the Chargers braintrust was how the Pats changed things up on 3rd & longs and other obvious passing downs. Then they would switch to more of a pattern match, where they'd read the routes and stay in man on certain routes (verticals), and switch to more of a zone where they pass the receiver off to someone else (hitches, outs, flats), with the priority being the most dangerous route in a combo. Making things more confusing is that they were often not even lining up on their assignments until the Chargers receivers were already in their sets. It was wondrous to behold.

--And no one stood taller in this system than the 5-foot-8 Jones. Whether it was staying with McConkey in trail technique with Gonzalez over the top to force a punt with the game still very much in the balance:

To saving a touchdown with this perfect form tackle on Herbert, breaking down a man who's 10 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than Jones is:

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Meanwhile, the Packers fan in your life, already shamed by blowing a game they had a 96% chance of winning, is trying to cope with Keisean Nixon's business decision in the biggest moment of his football life. (Note if you have a Green Bay fan in your office, be kind to them as well.) Jones would also produce the weirdest box score entry of the season, when he got credited with a 0-yard sack and a forced fumble. But Kimani Vidal got credited with a 17-yard fumble return on the play. I'd be lying if I said that one didn't give me the sense the Pats were going to find some way to lose this one on a fatal mistake. I'm glad to be wrong. 

--On the back end of the secondary, the Pats did Pats things. Craig Woodson had a huge game, alternating as he does with Jaylinn Hawkins as to which one drops down from a split safety look and who remains as the deep guy. And taking turns bringing safety blitzes as well. Woodson might have had a career game in a rookie season filled with them, with 11 tackles, seven of them solo. A lot of them coming as the D was putting this game away. Early on, Herbert was killing them outside the numbers, but getting limited yards after the catch. On the final couple of LA possessions, the Pats were happy to give Herbert the underneath stuff and the area between the numbers, trading time off the clock for yards. And Herbert kept taking the cheese while Woodson was flying around punishing his receivers for having the audacity to offend him by catching passes in his presence.

--So … where did we leave things with Drake Maye? Right. He didn't have a great game. But let's not lose sight of which standard we're judging him by, which his historically good season. He still produced 334 yards from scrimmage with his arm and his legs. His throws were uncharacteristically off-target, especially early on where he kept sailing them. Particularly to his tight ends, including an overthrow of Austin Hooper, who was "NFL open" in the end zone, a step and a half behind Elijah Molden. And obviously ball security was an issue, between a tipped ball interception, two fumbles, and one fumble lost. Let me just say I hope the next time he's helping Ann Michael in the kitchen, he's more careful with the hot cookie sheets or someone's Salted Caramel Gingersnaps they worked so hard on are going to end up on the floor. 

--That said, the defense kept limiting the damage, holding the Chargers to just 3 points on the two turnovers. And as I foreshadowed earlier, right after that red zone stop, Rhamondre Stevenson got them right back to midfield, and seized all the momentum of the game. That defensive stand and this dumpoff pass were the Pats UNO Reverse card:

A few points about that play that speak to the entire offensive approach to this game. The biggest challenge facing Josh McDaniels was what to do without his best blocking wide receiver, Mack Hollins. Without him, I expected them to have a very serious Derwin James problem. Because while James is a hybrid strong safety/linebacker/slot corner, he's a full time Hardo:

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But watch Stevenson's catch and run, and note the job Kyle Williams did changing direction, taking on James just at the point James had missile lock on the ballcarrier, and springing him for another 30 or so yards. I don't remember Williams' blocking getting a lot of mentions in his draft profiles. But time and again he's the guy you see upfield taking on safeties and turning checkdowns into X-plays. 

--I genuinely went into this game convinced McDaniels was going to use the same section of the playbook he tortured the Jets and Dolphins with. Where it would be all I-formations behind Jack Westover and gobs and gobs of Thayer Munford Jr. (I mustn't forget the "Jr." and confuse him with any other Thayer Munfords) reporting as an eligible receiver. The logic being that I thought they'd want a tight end or tackle on James. But Munford didn't enter the game until the first possession of the 3rd, and I don't think they went to that more than like four times. Instead, they effectively neutralized James by going to spread. The opposite of what I thought they'd do. Rather than go with Jumbo packages hoping to dominate a smaller box, they forced the Chargers best defender into coverage, which kept him from being a pest along the line of scrimmage. And they were able to have success against him. Including scoring the only touchdown of the game on him. As TreVeyon Henderson put Daiyan Henley into the spin cycle of a top-load washer:

Given the way the game was going to that point, it was impossible not to watch Hunter Henry score and not immediately think of how they put that Super Bowl against the Rams away. The only difference being that Maye threw a better pass to Henry than Tom Brady did to Gronk:

Proving once again history might not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

--A quick note about something I said a paragraph ago, don't type "Jumbo packages dominate smaller box" into the search bar on your work computer. Or anywhere, for that matter. 

--The whole Jim Harbaugh/Jesse Minter defensive philosophy is built on disguising looks and making post-snap adjustments. They like to jumble your Scrabble tiles and confuse you. They're good at it. So Maye can be excused for taking some time to adjust. By the 2nd half, he was getting the ball out quicker. Taking whatever profits he could, given that his line - especially Jared Wilson, who clearly isn't all the way back from his concussion and was wearing the Memory Foam helmet cover - was having problems with the Chargers pass rush, which goes three-deep at Edge rusher. When he did have a clean pocket to operate from, he leaned into this throw into the teeth of the wind, to Kayshon Boutte. Boutte was a pleasant surprise addition to the lineup, given he's been fighting a bad hammy. And he had the situational awareness to aggressively break back on the ball, turn, run, flip the field, and set up the third field goal:

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--To be fair to Wilson, because he has been battling something and also because I'm feeling charitable, he made one huge play, pouncing on Maye's fumble and averting disaster. Sometimes, all it takes is one play and you go from Zero to Hero. I mean, even Jar Jar Binks was responsible for destroying thousands of battle droids by accident and got a medal for it. And unlike Jared Wilson, he's a piece of shit.

--This Week's Applicable Movie Quote (tie): "And from there, we will funnel them into the mountain pass we call the Hot Gates. Now, in that narrow corridor, their numbers will count for nothing. And wave after wave of Persian attack will smash against Spartan shields." - King Leonidas. And,

"Even a god can bleed." - Dilios. Both from 300.

--Even when Maye isn't at his best, he still finds ways to make history:

--Get a load of Harbaugh. Not only burning a time out trying to ice Andy Borregales, but trying to steal Steve Belichick's whole aesthetic. 

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You don't ice Aurora Borrgales. He ices you. 

--So next week - Sunday most likely - is yet another home playoff game. Against whoever wins tonight, Houston at Pittsburgh, in what otherwise would've been the most uninteresting match up of the Wild Card round. A year ago at this time, we were still trying to get over the fact Jerod Mayo and Joe Milton III cost us the No. 1 pick. Instead this team just spared us from months of being angry at the Red Sox and waiting for the Michael Jackson movie to come out. Life is so, so good.