Price: If the Patriots look like the Patriots again, it's bad news for the rest of the league

FOXBOROUGH — Timing is everything, right? So really, you can’t blame the Patriots for playing their best game at the best time of year.

From start to finish, Sunday’s 41-28 win was their most complete game of the season. The execution was crisp. The play-calling was sharp. And the complementary football, in all three phases, was more than enough to leave the Chargers’ reeling for the last three-plus quarters. No short fields for the defense to worry about. No playing catch-up on offense. and a group of special teamers that came through time and again to help create favorable field position.

“Hats off to the Pats, man. They played a hell of a game. Executed well,” Los Angeles wide receiver Keenan Allen said after the game.

“They looked like the Patriots.”


Despite the struggles at various points over the course of the 2018 season, Allen’s statement should concern the three other teams that make up the NFL’s Final Four. Sure, the Patriots will have to go to Kansas City next week, which means something will have to change if they want to reverse the road woes that left them with a 3-5 regular-season mark away from Foxborough.

But the bottom line is that, given their talent level, Sunday represented the sort of game this team has always been capable of.

They were really sharp on offense, scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions while Tom Brady threw for 343 yards. Sony Michel rushed for 129 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries. Julian Edelman (nine catches, 151 yards) and James White (15 catches, 97 yards) took care of the rest.

On the ground game — one of the most productive in recent playoff history for the Patriots — if the Chargers are going to come out in dime, it only makes sense to run the ball against an undersized front. (I pictured John Harbaugh sitting at home watching the game on Sunday smacking himself in the forehead, thinking, “That’s the way you beat seven defensive backs.”)

Really though, dime or no, the truth of the matter is this was the sort of game Michel and the Patriots’ offensive line has been building to over the last month-plus. The sort of game that would have made Logan Mankins proud, a physical style that left Los Angeles reeling and allowed the New England ground game to steamroll the Chargers’ defensive front. The Patriots’ averaged 4.6 yards per carry as a team, and the highly-touted pass-rush tandem of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram were held sackless on the afternoon.

The Chargers tweaked their personnel in the second half and occasionally added a linebacker or two. But by then, it was too late.

“We didn’t make good enough adjustments, I guess,” shrugged San Diego coach Anthony Lynn.

On defense, they were able to suffocate the Chargers, holding Los Angeles to one first-quarter score before the Chargers added a pair of garbage-time touchdowns that will totally end up skewing any defensive stats from this one. Stephon Gilmore corralled Allen, Melvin Gordon couldn’t get started. And Phillip Rivers was harassed to a point where he was left yelling at his teammates, palms up in disbelief. (I’ll give him this, though. He got off the line of the afternoon when he was asked if he’s going to watch the AFC title game: “I’ll watch it. I hope they play for about three days. Really, I hope it lasts three days and they finally just call it a draw.”)

In the end, considering the stakes, the personnel packages, and the opponent, this was New England’s best performance of the year from start to finish.

“It was two great weeks of preparation,” said left tackle Trent Brown. “Our attention to detail is amazing. And it showed up (Sunday).”

“(We) had a really good week. Obviously, (we were) ready to go,” Bill Belichick said. “We played a good game today against a good football team.

“I thought our team played well and made plays in every area and played with a lot of energy, a lot of effort. It's good to be playing this time of year, good to be able to move on. Give the players credit – they really competed well today and that's what you need this time of year.”

The Patriots were aggressive, even with the game out of reach. In truth, the second-half touchdowns felt like more than just about piling on a Chargers’ team that looked ready to jump back on the bus about halfway through the second quarter. Those touchdowns were a message to the rest of the league. At various points this year, the New England offense was a shell of itself. The Patriots were a one-great offense that was reduced to running trick plays in hopes of survival.

Now? The Patriots — finally — look like the Patriots again. It’s better late than never. If they can keep that familiar look about them for another two games, it’ll go a long way toward shaping the legacy of the 2018 roster.