Chargers/Patriots - Another Chapter In The Rivalry

The San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots will renew their rivalry this Sunday night when they meet at Qualcomm Stadium. Although it has only been ten months since these two teams met in the AFC Championship Game, the circumstances have changed drastically for both sides. For San Diego, a combination of injuries and inconsistent play has resulted in the Chargers struggling mightily to start the season. For New England, the challenge has been to maintain momentum after losing their franchise quarterback to a season ending injury. Although the Patriots have done a much better job than the Chargers at handling adversity this season, there is still plenty of time left for San Diego to turn their fortunes around. The Chargers are hoping a victory against the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs the past two years will be just the catalyst they are looking for.

Three Keys To The Game For San Diego

1) Fading Stars - After a great start to the season, Philip Rivers has struggled to find his rhythm throughout the past couple of weeks. During the last two games, Rivers has thrown for 339 yards while completing just over 50% of his passes. If San Diego has any hope of winning this game, Philip Rivers will need to return to the form that he demonstrated through the first three weeks of the season. The Chargers should be worried about Rivers, but the real cause for concern on offensive should be the play of LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates. Although both of these players are dealing with nagging injuries, they will need to play much better for the Chargers to have any shot of making the playoffs. The Chargers need their stars to show up on Sunday night, otherwise this team will be 2-4 on Monday morning.

2) The 3 - 4 Defence - Both of these teams run the majority of their defensive schemes with three down linemen and four linebackers. Although the strategy and personnel are similar for both teams, the performance so far this season has been drastically different. If you exclude the problems that the Patriots had against Miami, the New England defence has been one of the best in the league this season. On the other hand, the San Diego defence has performed miserably this season under the guidance of defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell. Albeit the incompetence of Cottrell will continue to hinder this defence, the Chargers always have the capability to make a big play with athletes like Antonio Cromartie, Jamal Williams, Shaun Philips and Luis Castillo on the field.

3) 7.3 Is Not Good Enough - 7.3 is the number of plays that the San Diego offence is averaging per drive this season, a pitiful reflection of how the Chargers have struggled to maintain offensive momentum. If the Chargers expect to win on Sunday, they will need to sustain long drives that keep the football away from the patriots offence. However, this will not be an easy task against a New England defence that has limited opposing offences to four plays or less on 40% of their possessions this season.

Game Notes

-Chris Chambers (ankle), Vincent Jackson (knee), Jyles Tucker (hamstring) missed practice on Thursday

- LaDainian Tomlinson is averaging only 66.2 rushing yards per game

- The Chargers have won seven straight nationally televised games at home

- New England leads the overall series 20-14-2

- The Patriots have won twelve straight road games

- Since 2003, New England is 20-3 in October

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