NFL Playoffs: NE Patriots @ SD Chargers

This will be hell of a game and I can hardly wait for this! Brady, Bellichick, everyone has learnt the hard lesson to not discounting them when the game is not over yet. When you thought they’ve been down, or rather you’ve beaten them, they’ll be back when it matters. The NY Jets learnt it the hard way last week.

This week though it’ll be a little different as Chargers is the hottest team in the league now, MVP in LT, amazing defense led by Merriman, all of these courtesy of the late John Butler’s vision, executed now by his best buddy AJ Smith in the GM role. There’s a touching story on NFL.com on how amazing Butler’s work ethics and his lifelong friendship with Smith. It was a testament to Butler’s vision and quality that a 1-15 Chargers (fresh in my mind when I made the frequent trips to the Qualcomm Stadium to watch them getting beaten badly by my beloved Broncos) was turned around into a winning franchise by this guy’s vision and talent scouting amazing ability, although he’ll definitely said it was a team effort. On this memoir itself, I could find myself rooting for the Chargers (for the first time in my life).

But back to the reality of the game itself, I have doubt in Rivers’ ability in a huge playoff game on stake, especially against Brady. Added to that, Schottenheimer’s poor records in playoff, it seems like the Chargers is meeting a wrong team just when their time seems to finally come. At the end of the day though, I guess it’s a turnover’s game. If the Chargers could force Brady to make many hurries and hence, force bad throws that led to interceptions –exactly just like what the Broncos did last season, the Chargers will wear the Patriots’ defense out with LT at his best. It’ll be a tough battle, but I do think the Patriots’ has dealt with way too many adversities to come into this stage, and overcoming those away from home might not bring the best of out the Brady’s bunch.

mindcubes’ long tail: NE @ SD : 25 – 28 (OT)