San Diego at New England
The game: San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots, 8:15 ET, Sunday
The Skinny: When bad blood has already been spilled and revenge is in the air, who doesn’t want to watch, right? The Chargers are undoubtedly still angry about some Patriots dancing on their midfield thunder bolt after New England’s 24-21 playoff win in January, a loss that spoiled San Diego’s magical 14-2 regular season, marred its perfect 8-0 record at home and, eventually, got its coach fired.
And the Patriots surely haven’t forgotten all the bad mouthing the Chargers did in response to the perceived slight.
So, to sum up – It’s ON, baby. Think Kill Bill, Fatal Attraction’s boiled rabbits, High Plains Drifter, Achilles murder rampage in the Iliad (now better known as the Cliff Notes version, the movie Troy) after his boy Patroclus was killed or Ahab tracking down the white whale and, the ultimate and original revenge drama, Hamlet. What, you’ve never seen Shakespeare referenced in a sports blog?
And, oh yeah, these are two of the three best team in football. This game could decide home-field advantage in the playoffs, maybe even the AFC Championship game, a.k.a. the NFL Championship game.
Plus, it’s on Sunday night, so everyone everywhere can tune in to this one and the players know this, know that all of the fans and peers and parents and parole officers will be watching this quest for revenge and superiority.
After throttling the Jets in Week One, the Pats will be looking to test their new offensive toys on a more worthy opponent. The San Diego defense sure looks like that. The Bolts gave up just 3 points to 2006’s second highest scoring offense. Yeah, yeah, I know Rex is still pulling the trigger in Chicago, but still, 3 points? And that coming after an interception gave the Bears nice field position? The San Diego defense is tight, make no mistake. But the Patriots offense is straight out of a four-man fantasy league – star after star after star.
Flip it around and you have more compelling matchups. You’ve got LaDainian, the Hamlet in this production, the most versatile offensive player in the game against
Adalius Thomas (arguably) the most versatile defensive player. Thomas was spectacular against the Jets, lining up at a new spot (middle linebacker) and dominating the game from sideline to sideline, from the line to the secondary. He may have the skills to tackle LaDainian in space, in the middle of the line, cover him coming out of the backfield or defend his passes. May. He may. The thought of the two of them lined up on opposite sides of the ball and staring each other down for 60 minutes is a football junky’s dream, just like the rest of this game.
Since the Big Big staff is New England based and long-time Pats fans (ask about the Andre Tippett rap we wrote to combat the Super Bowl shuffle), and we’ve liked the Bolts since the days of Dan Fouts, there will be MUCH more on this one this week, so stay tuned.
