Getty ImagesEarly Sunday afternoon, Cam Newton become the sixth player in NFL history to throw for more than 400 yards in back-to-back games. Tom Brady quickly joined him as the seventh.
The Patriots outlasted the Chargers 35-21 in a game that felt closer than the score indicated. That’s because the Chargers offense moved the ball at will, but couldn’t finish drives.
The Chargers turned the ball over four times. They were stuffed on the goal line on a fourth down in the first half, and a red zone interception by Philip Rivers ended another drive. A second half interception by Vince Wilfork was a masterpiece if you like Big Guy with Football moments.
The team was playing catch up the rest of the way, and couldn’t quite get it done despite 10 catches, 172 yards, and two touchdowns.
The offenses were just insane in this game: 57 first downs and 974 yards, split almost evenly between the two teams. Brady and the Patriots just made far fewer errors.
Brady completed 31-of-40 passes for 423 yards and three scores. We may as well start the Marino yardage record watch now.
Pariots tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were generally unstoppable, with Gronk Nation making life painful for big money Chargers safety Eric Weddle late in the game.
The Patriots suffered a number of injuries in the secondary, which could make next week’s game against the 2-0 Bills tricky.
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Brady has beef with Cam Newton
Chargers choke again per usual – and their D is far far from being rated #1.
Brady has a 135 QB rating – going 31 for 40, 3 TD’s with NO picks.
Rivers had 2 picks and the Bolts have two other costly turnovers, and can’t punch it in with two tries from the one yard line.
AJ Smith – The Lord of NO RINGS – rides again.
Thank God the clock finally expired. I couldn’t stand to watch the Chargers shoot themselves in the foot again.
Of course, The Lord of NO RINGS will give coach Norbert a vote of confidence, and the Spanos are out on the golf course, not even knowing yet what happened.
It’s just too easy to pass the ball in today’s NFL. The game is becoming boring really fast.
AJ Smith is a jerk.
I wouldn’t say error free on the part of my Pats. We have long season and there is a lot more games to played. We haven’t won anything yet. We have a lot of things we need to do better.
Good to be 2-0
So when does PFT start the “Rivers chokes” articles?
He’s been doing it for years but the media covers up for him for some reason.
Almost all the guys who were injured came back Rosenthal did you even watch the game?
Chung was back on the field and Arrington was just shaken up the only guy that didn’t come back was Dowling.
By the way Brady is still the best in the NFL no questions asked.
Also the Patriots have beaten the Bills FIFTEEN straight times I don’t think it’s going to be that tricky.
The Buffalo Bills are going to light up that defense. Bills will be 3-0
Here we go again.
Any time the Chargers lose it’s “we were the better team. silly mistakes. won’t happen next time. blah blah blah”.
96% of the time any team loses it’s due to silly mistakes, yet somehow Chargers seem to get more praise than criticism for their error-strewn performances. If it were the Bengals nobody would be interested in “oh we should have won that! if only we didn’t turn the ball over 4 times”.
Lets not forget the rivers is an elite QB
We got Eli you got the choke king and the roid fool
We got the VL Trophy you got to watch
Gronk made life for Weddle painful the whole game not just at the end. Gronk was playing varsity today, Weddle was the 7th grade travel team.
Tom Brady=fantasy king
What happened to GATES??
M*A*S*H in New England.
Brady is on pace to throw 6000 yards.
If defenses do not catch up to offenses this year it may actually happen.
Cue all the haters now.
Bahhhhhhhahahahahah hahahahah ahhhhhh hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Every win is going to make me laugh all cynical like this, and I bet they won’t stop anytime soon.
Bring on Buffalo.
BAHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHA
4 turnovers, you will never beat the Pats like that.
Then the amazing big plays during catch up time to give me false hope…..
If Romo played like Rivers he would be killed for turning the ball over and losing the game for his team.
Brady vs Newton.
Another Pats win.
So, how did they cheat this time? any ideas?
The Bills are capable of scoring a lot of points on the Pats. Buffalo has a rockin home crowd too. Another good game for sure
Brady vs Newton
I would watch that game. thumbs up if u think NFL sets the Panthers vs Pats, Eagles, Cowboys, and Jets next year.
Yay-yuh… I’ll go ahead and call BILLS as winners next week.
Any of y’all betting folx???
The Chargers always self-destruct against the Brady-led Pats. It’s totally predictable. They think they’re not worthy of being on the same field. Maybe they need a sports psychologist.
We’re totally sunk…it looks like we lost the almighty ZOLTAN MESKO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
With the hit Brady took on the knee (btw, that SD player dove AT his knees…hope he gets an expensive FedEx letter), it’s amazing it wasn’t blown out again. Brady was probably thanking whatever higher deity that his knee survived. Mesko on the other hand looked like he had a guy bump into the side of his planted leg…but he grabbed at it like a guy who just blew out his ACL.
That could prove a tough deal…especially as Mesko was also the holder for Meat (Gostkowski). They just recently replaced the long snapper…so that specialist team will probably be in flux again.
As for the Pats defense…I’ve seen better outings. Even though they gave up 21 points, we’re lucky we were playing the Chargers…who always help us out by playing stupid. I think they got off the field on third down ONCE…ONCE. Couldn’t guard a cracker from an ant. Perhaps that was design…Gates was held to one catch and one bogus PI call. Gotta tip your hat to those guys covering Gates.
Tell you what…Mathews and Tolbert were making a long day of it for our defensive guys. They caught most of Rivers passes and dealt many hard shots to the defenders.
The Chargers couldn’t get it done besides 10 catches, ect…? What? Did you copy and paste half a paragragh to another? Proofread!
pilot2011 says:Sep 18, 2011 9:07 PM
Brady vs Newton
I would watch that game. thumbs up if u think NFL sets the Panthers vs Pats, Eagles, Cowboys, and Jets next year.
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The schedule is set by formula. You play everyone in your division twice (6 games), you play a set rotating division in your conference (4 games), you play a set rotating division in the other conference (4 games), and the last two are against the other two teams that finished at the same level you did the previous year (if you finished first, you play the other two firsts in your conference that you did not already get by virtue of playing your rotating intra-conference schedule above. 2 games).
In other words, they do not set anything beyond WHEN they play. This automatic scheduling also takes out most of the cries of “not fair”.
Not surprised by the Dolts not being able to finish drives with born loser head coach Norv Turnover running this sinking ship.
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@billsfaninmiami
This may be the mother of all trap games for the pats. I believe that they have won something like 14 in a row vs the bills which is unusual in today’s nfl.
One day the pats will have a game where everything goes awry and the bills capitalize on every opportunity. This very well could be the week. Buffalo being at home is key.
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That smug a-hole Tedy Bruschi thinks you all need to drop the awe factor!
Why is there a weird random sentence/paragraph in the middle that mentions the stats of Vincent Jackson but doesn’t mention the person Vincent Jackson?
“The team was playing catch up the rest of the way, and couldn’t quite get it done despite 10 catches, 172 yards, and two touchdowns.”
The team had 10 catches as a team?
Brees also threw 400+ in consecutive games (Playoff loss and then week 1 this year), but the NFL doesn’t count those as consecutive.
I can’t wait for week 5.
Ohhh, that Patsy D is looking downright tasty. Santonio and Sanchez and crew must be licking their lips right now. Can’t wait to see them buzz the tower again in Foxboro.
“This may be the mother of all trap games for the pats. I believe that they have won something like 14 in a row vs the bills which is unusual in today’s nfl.
One day the pats will have a game where everything goes awry and the bills capitalize on every opportunity. This very well could be the week. Buffalo being at home is key.”
Believe it or not the Patriots have beaten the Bills much worse in Buffalo then in New England.
For example last year they won by eight at home and 31 in Buffalo.
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“Ohhh, that Patsy D is looking downright tasty. Santonio and Sanchez and crew must be licking their lips right now. Can’t wait to see them buzz the tower again in Foxboro.”
Yeah right. Your team downgraded big time from Braylon to Plax. Your team can’t run the ball worth a lick and Sanchez is one of the 10 worst quarterbacks in the NFL.
Oakland beats you next week book it.
I wanna know where all the Eric Weddle love is. Isn’t this the guy that signed for huge money this off season? Everyone was saying what a great safety he is. Well, I got two words for you. Patrick Chung. Antonio Gates had ZERO catches and ZERO targets with Chung on him all day. Gronkowski OWNED Weddle on both TD grabs–all day for that matter.
SD is a good team, but they are a poorly coached team. How do you not guard the sidelines at the end of the 1st half and allow the Pats to get a cheap 3? Norv Turner in a nutshell right there. He has a PhD from the Marty Schottenheimer School of Coaching.
habsman says: Sep 18, 2011 8:55 PM
Another Pats win.
So, how did they cheat this time? any ideas?
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Give it up, pal. They won fair and square. SD shot themselves in the foot over and over again. And the only cheating you’ll see next week is the Bills impersonating a real football team. The Pats will set them straight, 42-24.