And the Winner is....

There is a LOT to consider this week in order to pick a winner in the Chargers at New England game. I hope to be as accurate as I was last week, but as long as the Pats win I don't care. I'd love to see them beat the snot out of Mighty Mouth, I mean Tomlinson. He's still running his mouth, but he gets away with it in the media because he giggles when he says the Pats aren't trying if they're not cheating. That's bulletin board material for sure.


The Motivation.

For the Charger's it's revenge. Mighty Mouth was furious when the Pats were dancing on the field after beating the Bolts in the playoffs last year. While he seems to have backed down from his postgame comments, don't think he won't lead the charge to dance on the Pats emblem should he win on Sunday.

For the Pats it has to be to prove to the sportsworld that they can win without cheating. But I think that motivation could go either way. Think about it. If you've been a Pats player for the last 4-5 years and suddenly people are saying that your superbowls aren't legit after the thousands of hours in the weight room and hundreds of hours on the practice field and the film room and all the times you played hurt and couldn't get out of bed on Monday morning. Now you're labeled a cheater and told your championships are tarnished because of your coaches actions. Who are you going to be mad at? I don't think it's too much of a stretch for these players to be pissed at Belichick and tune him out. Then the cheating would have backfired on Belichick. I don't think that will happen here, not with this team. I really think they'll feed off the mantra of trying to prove they can win without cheating. I'm just not convinced that will be enough this week.


The Concern.

The concern I have this week is speed. Speed kills. The Pats D is BIG, but it is not fast. The Bears had success against Tomlinson last week because of their team speed on D, they could catch him. I'm not sure the Pats can. LT has run for an average of 135 yds and 2 TDs in his previous 3 games against the Pats.

Speed is also a concern in pass protection. The Jets D looks like the Slowski's compared with the Chargers D. Their pass rushers will get to Brady a lot faster than the Jets D could and they'll be relentless. They live by rushing the passer.


The Pats will win if...

...Adalius Thomas can stop Antonio Gates. I think he is the logical choice to match up and cover Gates because of his size and speed.

...The Pats can set the edge and keep LT from getting outside. This task will fall mostly on Vrabel and Colvin. On run plays, they've got to get up field and set the edge, making LT have to cut his runs inside where the Warrens and Bruschis and Thomas's of the world can tackle him. If LT consistently gets outside it will be a LONG night for the Pats

...The wide receivers are on the same page as Brady. SD will blitz and Brady will make the right read and find the open guy, he always does. But the wideout has to make the right read too. If the WR goes left and he's supposed to go right, then they're looking at turnovers, or at the very least, incompletions and punts.



What I See

I see a motivated Pats team that's going to be fired up for it's home opener on national TV. I see the Pats O slowing up the Bolts D by using a lot of draws and screens and employing a power running game. Once they've slowed the pass rush, they'll execute on a couple of deep passes that will be the difference in the game.

The Pats D hasn't primarily concerened itself with shutting down LT in the past. I think they realize that he's going to get his yards. The key will be keeping him out of the end zone - running or passing. The focus will be to confuse Rivers and contain Gates.

I see the Chargers speed keeping them in this one for most of the game with the Pats pulling away in the 4th quarter.

Patriots 30
Chargers 20