Sports Redux: Let's Forget This Ever Happened

Well...forget 18-1. The Patriots were chewed up, spit out, massacred and other violent verbs last night in San Diego, as the Chargers finally figured out how to beat the Pats (play them in October, without Tom Brady) and romped to a 30-10 win that really didn't even seem that close.

San Diego got out to a 10-0 first-quarter lead, mostly because Philip Rivers carved up the D with a couple long passes. The Patriots alternated between getting no drives going at all, and having long drives end in failure, like the long long drive to start the second half that ended on downs at the San Diego 2. And America went to bed.

Matt Cassel wasn't awful - 20 for 38, but he got sacked four times. The running game was bad, the defense, as mentioned, very bad, and it all added up to a craptacular finish. And the Patriots are now 3-2, and 0-1 against teams that are any good (unless you count Miami, which we don't, however good they looked against New England). Amazingly, though, the Pats would still be a playoff team if the season ended today.

Remember, the Red Sox play an afternoon game today, which means you might be able to show the kids what the end of a playoff game looks like. Unless it goes six hours, which it won't, because we trust Jon Lester to dispatch the Rays with his usual sangfroid. The Dodgers got back on track and beat the Phillies 7-2 to tighten up the NLCS.