Long gains cause for separation

Unable to limit the big plays, Patriots were left playing catch-up

SAN DIEGO - Get beaten deep. Deep trouble.

Unlike their first defeat, when they were caught off guard by a different type of running offense and never recovered, the Patriots died by a different sword last night in a 30-10 blowout loss to the Chargers.

They were simply bombed through the air, hit with a series of big passing plays that ultimately buried them under an avalanche of points they weren't equipped to come back from.

Cornerbacks were the primary culprit, as it was clear from the start what the Chargers - a team that had been plagued by slow starts - felt was the Patriots' main weakness.

First play of the night. Let it rip. Man-to-man coverage along the right side. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers unleashed a 48-yard strike to receiver Vincent Jackson, with cornerback Deltha O'Neal a step behind in coverage.

All told, on four of the Chargers' first five scoring drives, they hit the big ones - the 48-yarder to Jackson, a 49-yard touchdown strike to receiver Malcom Floyd (O'Neal in coverage), a 59-yard bomb to Jackson (rookie Terrence Wheatley in coverage), and a pass interference penalty in the end zone on Ellis Hobbs that covered 32 yards.

Four plays, 188 yards, ultimately producing 17 points.

"The big play kills you in the National Football League," safety Rodney Harrison said. "You can't recover when you give up 40-yard, 50-yard, 60-yard bombs."

Games can get away from teams in a hurry, and once the Patriots couldn't punch in a score on four tries from the 1-yard line early in the third quarter when looking to close to 17-10, that's exactly what happened. Through much of the night, Chargers receivers raced down the field and must have been surprised at the wide swaths of yardage available to them, as those outside targets (including the tight ends) totaled 254 receiving yards.

Patriots defenders talked about how they played mostly man-to-man coverage. Thus they weren't outmanned. Just outplayed.

"We just have to be able to cover better," Harrison said. "It comes down to one man making a play against another man. It's about us making plays, and they did a better job than us."

The Patriots spent the majority of the night in a defense that had four defensive linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. The plan seemed to be to rely on the linemen and linebackers to essentially hold up against LaDainian Tomlinson and the Chargers' running game (98 yards, 28 carries, 3.5-yard average). That put added pressure on the secondary to cover man-to-man in the passing game.

"It was just frustrating because the guys did a terrific job up front of basically containing LaDainian, an All-Pro back, so to give up plays like that was very disappointing for us," Harrison said.

Yet the plan might have been flawed because the Patriots never laid a hand on Rivers, registering no quarterback hits, and there seemed to be few coaching wrinkles to generate such pressure. So while the cornerbacks were beaten deep on those costly plays, they also received little support in the form of a pass rush.

Hobbs, who unlike O'Neal answered questions from reporters after the game, indicated it wasn't as if the Patriots were caught by surprise with the air assault.

"We knew they were coming, and we had a big task, man-up all day," Hobbs said. "Middle-field safety, and any time you get that you're going to expect [them to try] big plays. We had our high moments, we had our low moments, but we had way too many low moments."

Chargers receivers talked afterward about how they liked their matchup against Patriots cornerbacks, which explains why they went for the jugular on the first play of the night.

Jackson said the offense wanted to "send a message and set the tone, but it was strategic as well. We knew how they were going to play. Their cornerbacks like to play off, but they also like to come downhill. We just ran a seam route to make it look like it was going to be a seven, which is a deeper route, [O'Neal] kind of settled his feet and I just went by him."

"We kind of knew the passing game would work," Floyd said. "We had a size advantage and we caught on to that throughout the game that it was there."

Floyd (6-5) and Jackson (6-5) did tower over the players often trying to cover them - Hobbs (5-9), O'Neal (5-11), and Wheatley (5-9) - and that tale of the tape was a microcosm of the teams last night.

The Chargers played big, sparked by their big plays.

The Patriots played much smaller, unable to contain the bombs that were launched in their direction.