Chargers-Patriots: Strange and key chapter in mini-rivalry

By Os Davis  |   Friday, October 10, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

New England Patriots
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Some rivalries are forever: Think Dallas-Washington or Oakland-Denver. Others are short-term wars, inexorably linked to an era in parallel team history. We old guys fondly recall the annual clashes (including six head-to-heads in 1978 and ’79 alone) between those Pittsburgh Steelers and then-AFC Central division mates Houston Oilers, even if the wins predictably tended to fall Pittsburgh’s way.

In the 2000s, 10 years that threaten to go down in NFL history as the Patriot Decade, New England alone has created a few temporary rivalries such as those with Pittsburgh (six meetings in the past six seasons, including two conference championship games) and Indianapolis (averaging more than one meeting per season since Tom Brady’s debut, many of which produced the decade’s most dramatic moments).

The latest chapter in a third Patriot rivalry, that of the Pats against the San Diego Chargers, will be written Sunday night. Most recently, it’s been all Patriots: Last year saw machine-efficient New England crush the Chargers in Week 2, 38-14, and handily dispose of them in the conference championship, 21-12.

And though only history can confirm it, a real franchise turning point may have been the 2006 divisional playoffs. One heads-up play by Troy Brown to turn over a turnover late in the fourth quarter allowed the Patriots to defeat the favored Chargers, 24-21. That cost Marty Schottenheimer his job, and at 2-3, how do you like Norv Turner now, San Diego fans?

A new chapter it will be and a bit of a weird one to boot. Key old stalwarts in Brady and Shawne Merriman, who always seems to save his best stuff for the Pats, are out. LaDainian Tomlinson is half the typical L.T. right about now, while Randy Moss edgily still has not yet found his niche. Strange days, indeed.

Must-win game? You bet. This home game may be correctly called a must-win for San Diego, particularly if Denver also brings in a ‘W’ against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The mercurial, fourth-quarter comatose Chargers still have three weeks to go before they can adjust on the bye week and before then come two playoff-level teams in the Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints. Going 2-4 digs quite a hole in the shadow of a potential 5-1 Broncos team.

Despite holding informal alpha-dog status in the AFC East, a fair amount of pressure lies on the Patriots as well. New England can knot up the top slot in the division with a win, while a loss to San Diego would make that ugly Week 3 loss to the Miami Dolphins even more painful with regard to playoff tiebreakers. And the Patriots would appear to have abstract needs as well: If you squinted at certain points in the San Francisco game, you could almost make out the Patriots of “old” (18-0 seems like forever ago, doesn’t it?) and detect a little confident swagger.

It may be early in the season, some players may be barely recognizable and the fireworks we’ve come to expect in these meetings may be slightly muted, but this Week 6 game in the New England-San Diego mini-dynasty will surely be another significant bit of this decade’s NFL history. Ready for some football? These guys are.

Injury watch: As of Thursday night, no one on either team is listed as out (unless you include those big names on the injured reserve, of course). Missing some practice this week for the Patriots were LB Eric Alexander, RB LaMont Jordan, WR Kelly Washington and TE Dave Thomas; for the Chargers, WR Chris Chambers, WR Vincent Jackson and LB Jyles Tucker.

Fantasy Football Impact: Well, this fantasy owner’s RF365 staff team has Matt Cassel, Laurence Maroney and the Patriot ‘DST’ starting this week, but we suck this year and are even more desperate than the Chargers. As for San Diego, is there anybody to like there? And how’s that No. 1 overall treating you, L.T. fans?

Fan Pulse: All the requisite trash talk you’d expect from both sides is there, but a special Post of the Week Award should go to LightningBolt, a San Diego fan posting on PatsFans.com; he demonstrated class and realistic pessimism in writing:

Just dropped by to wish you guys luck. This upcoming game was actually the one I was looking most forward to this year. But, now that Tom Brady is out for the season, and the Chargers suck big time, thanks to Norv Turner screwing up the team, I don't care that much anymore about this game. In fact, I kind of hope that the Patriots win, so that we can finally get rid of Norv Turner. ... Anyways, good luck on Sunday. You probably won't be needing any luck since the Chargers suck so much.

Oh, and the Patriot faithful will be referring to San Diego’s team as The Dead Bolts (giggle), a marginal winner over L.T.’s Prime Time Whine in PatsFans' weekly “Name the Opponent” thread.

Official RF365 prediction: New England Patriots 17, San Diego Chargers 13.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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