Brady had no answers

FOXBOROUGH -- For 21 straight home games a boisterous crowd has filled Gillette Stadium expecting to see, among other things, Tom Brady work his magic.

Sometimes he would torment the opposing defense. Sometimes he would stage one of his patented come-from-behind victories. But since Dec. 22, 2002, when the Jets won, 30-17, in Foxborough, sellout crowd after sellout crowd has left the stadium after seeing Brady lead his troops to some kind of victory.

But yesterday San Diego stopped the Brady Bunch. The Chargers mounted two clock-eating drives to chew up nearly 10 minutes of the third quarter, producing something new at the normally raucous stadium -- stunned silence.

Coming out of intermission tied at 17, most fans expected more offensive fireworks from Brady and Chargers quarterback Drew Brees. However, the only second-half explosions came from San Diego, which bolted to a 31-17 lead en route to a 41-17 victory.

But even then, in the fourth quarter it seemed the Patriots would mount a comeback as Brady began a drive with a short completion to Troy Brown for a first down. But then an incompletion to David Givens, a 2-yard run by Corey Dillon, and another incompletion to Patrick Pass forced a New England punt. San Diego then embarked on a 15-play, 72-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, eating 8 minutes 55 seconds off the clock and leaving Brady with but 4:38 to overcome a 17-point deficit.

''We really needed that drive because you can't give the ball back to Tom Brady," said San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, who rushed for 134 yards on 25 carries. ''You have to keep it away from him. He's able to make so many things happen, you just have to keep it away from him."

Appearing frustrated but far from depressed after the game, Brady said he sees no reason to panic, and he refused to blame injuries for the reason his offense sputtered.

''Well, [San Diego] played pretty well," he said. ''I think they just executed better than we did. We really didn't come out and execute the way that I thought we could have there in the second half, and because of that, we were pumping the ball to them. They came into our tough stadium to play and they just really outplayed us."

Asked if he thought his offensive line had had a breakdown that allowed the Chargers to stop Dillon, or the Chargers had an effective defensive scheme, Brady thought the two were related.

''Well, I think it all goes hand-in-hand," said Brady, who completed 19 of 32 passes for 224 yards with a touchdown and an interception. ''Offensively, we've got to throw the ball better and run the ball better, be more efficient in both. We are just not really executing at the level that I think we need to be at."

He added, however, that he and his teammates could not dwell on the well-publicized injuries in key positions.

''Well, I don't think about the injuries at all," said Brady. ''I mean we have plenty of capable players out there, guys who have proven a lot of things. We just didn't play well today."

But again, Brady said his team would not let its 2-2 record become a factor.

''Well, it's the fourth game of the year, so we have a lot of football left," he said. ''We are trying to go out there and play well and execute well. I think today we just didn't really do that. When you play a good team and you don't execute well, that is when you lose. We need to play better. We have a tough challenge against Atlanta next week. We are going to need to improve in a short amount of time, try to really tighten up some of the mistakes and play a much more competitive game than the one we played today."