Hostilities have arisen between the Chargers and Patriots, and Rivers has expressed his animosity after games with one or two players who no longer are with New England, but Brady wasn’t one of them.Īs it happens, when he recently moved beyond the 2,000 mark in pass attempts, Rivers took over the NFL lead from Brady in that career TD-to-interception category. “I’ll never forget the toughness (Philip Rivers) showed, playing on a torn ACL in 10-degree weather,” said Brady, “and he played an incredible game.” So that AFC title game is Brady’s freshest first-hand memory of the Chargers, and speaking of knees, Brady recalled that the other guy that frotstbitten day in Foxborough was playing with a bad knee of his own. The relative ease with which the Chargers smoked the visiting Pats 30-10, with no disrespect to Matt Cassel, might have had something to do with Brady’s absence. For the last meeting, Brady wasn’t on the field, instead spending virtually the entirety of the 2008 season recovering from a knee injury. Until last year, the Chargers and Pats had met in four straight years in either the regular season or playoffs. We’ve got to really understand that its gonna be one of those classic Charger-Patriot games that comes down to the fourth quarter.” “I know they have four losses on the road, but they have two wins at home by almost four touchdowns each. “They play extremely well at home and we’re playing them at home, so that’s what you’ve got to look at,” he said. (Never mind, too, that most of the Bolts who’ve picked off his passes are no longer with San Diego.) Moreover, while he acknowledges that the Chargers are 2-4, Brady basically (and kindly) breaks that down to a case of geography. These, naturally, are the sorts of numbers that occupy Brady’s thoughts as he plans for the first game he’ll play against the Chargers since 2007. San Diego’s also tied for second in the league in sacks with 21. This season, this very peculiar season in San Diego, the Chargers have intercepted seven passes in six games while ranking among the NFL leaders in fewest TD passes allowed with five. And these guys … you’re right, they’ve done a great job over the years. As a quarterback, you never want to turn the ball over. Or the two TD’s he’d thrown (among 51 passes) to eliminate the Chargers from the playoffs the year previous.
Like, say, the scoring passes he threw to Wes Welker and Jabar Gaffney to ultimately beat the Chargers, sending the still-unbeaten Patriots off to Super Bowl XLII. Over six career games against San Diego _ two of them playoffs, including the AFC Championship Game of 2007 _ Brady’s thrown 12 TD’s and been intercepted 10 times.Īsk him if he remembers the scores, the TD’s against San Diego, with the same clarity.
Understand that Brady, three-time Super Bowl champion and Most Valuable Player and one-time league MVP, entered the 2010 season as the all-time National Football League leader with his touchdown-to-interception ratio of 2.27. It’s just that, relatively speaking, there are more San Diego interceptions for Brady to recall. Not that Brady has taken those interceptions any more personally than others, though heaven knows the Patriots and Chargers have gotten under each others’ skins in their spirited and usually crucial matchups.
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