After going into halftime being up by one point and having just given up a touchdown, the San Diego Chargers came out in the second half like a team who had gone home when the score was 14-13. The offensive line could not contain the New England defense as the Defensive Coordinator, Matt Patricia, pulled out all the stops against the San Diego offense that Head Coach Mike McCoy and Offensive Coordinator Frank Reich could not overcome.
Overall, the Chargers came out looking like a team who was ready to make a run for the postseason. They were coming into this game at 8-4 as the 5th seed in the Wild Card postseason race, while the Patriots were coming in at 9-3 and leading their division. The Miami Dolphins and other AFC East teams would, however, be rooting for the Chargers to win, because that could have potentially put the Dolphins and Patriots in a critical game to claim the division crown next week.
Chargers Head Coach Mike McCoy said in his day after press conference that the play in which Punter Mike Scifres was injured on was a decision "based on the way the defense was playing at the time." He was sure that with three timeouts and the fact that Defensive Coordinator John Pagano had engineered plays leading to three New England three-and-outs, that they could get the ball back and score to win.
Obviously, that was not the case and now the Chargers will host punters to potentially include Sav Rocca and Mat McBriar this week to replace Scifres, who had surgery on his broken clavicle this morning.