Patriots Stymie San Diego

12/8/2014

John Ahern

A week in sunny southern California did not distract the New England Patriots on Sunday as their defense and clutch play defeated the San Diego Chargers 23-14 in front of 68,815 fans at beautiful Qualcomm Stadium in downtown San Diego.

The Chargers led at the half, 14-13, and it stayed that way until the final quarter. The Pats went on a 10 play 55 yd. drive that was capped by a Stephen Gostkowski 38 yd. field goal and the visitors had their first lead since the first quarter at 16-14. Just a mere 1:53 later, New England increased their lead to 23-14 as Julian Edelman scratched and clawed his way to a 69 yd. touchdown catch and run and for all intents and purposes, it was game time. Brady was 28-44 for 317 yds. with 1 td. and 1 int., while Edelman caught 8 passes for 141 yds. and the game icing score. The offense was clutch, but the story was the defense.

The Chargers had six second half drives, four of them were three and out. Philip Rivers was pressured all day which resulted in four sacks by the aggressive Patriot defense led by Jamie Collins who had half of them. Darrelle Revis proved once again that he is the best in the business by holding Keenan Allen to 2 catches for a miniscule 3 yards. Jamie Collins led all tacklers with 9 total and 8 of which were solo.

News and Notes:

- The Patriots reached double digits in wins for the twelfth consecutive season.

- Tom Brady is 6-0 in his career versus Philip Rivers, including the playoffs, his best against any opponent.

- Chargers WR Keenan Allen had not been targeted in the first half for the first time in his career.

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