Bedard's 3 Up, 3 Down: Defense Leads Way For Patriots In San Diego
BOSTON (CBS) - The Patriots got back to their winning ways on Sunday night, besting the San Diego Chargers 23-14 to improve to 10-3 on the season.
The offense struggled, but the defense was there to pick up the slack. The MMQB's Greg Bedard joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger & Mazz for his weekly visit on Tuesday, and he and Tony Mazz gave their three studs and three duds from Sunday's game:
Bedard's 3 Ups
1. Darrelle Revis
"To hold Keenan Allen, one of the best young receivers in the game, to one meaningless catch, that is just a spectacular day. It looked like the Chargers went into that game and gave up going to Allen. Revis was just great."
"This is why I don't even have Revis on my list. They never went at him or never really challenged him," yelled Mazz. "They wrote it off from the start."
2. Akeem Ayers
"He was terrific. [He had] six and a half quarterback pressures and that interception to halt San Diego's drive [after the Brandon Browner penalty]. He didn't have a sack but he had three hits and three and a half hurries; he was all over the place."
3. Jamie Collins
"He had two sacks, a hit, a hurry and another stuffed run. He did have a few issues in the running game with the Chargers hitting on a few big ones, but overall, he played very well."
Mazz's 3 Ups
1. Jamie Collins
"He was the biggest surprise in that game, pleasantly. To me, Collins was the best player in that game defensively."
2. Julian Edelman
"He took some shots in the middle of the field... and he had the play of the game on top of that: A 15-yard pitch and catch that he took the distance."
3. Devin McCourty
"They asked him to do more in this game. There were times when he was lined up on [tight end Antonio] Gates and played some man-to-man coverage. He stuck his nose in there a lot."
Bedard's 3 Downs
1. Nate Solder:
"He had five and a half quarterback pressures allowed and three and a half stuffed runs allowed. I had him for 11 negative plays in this game, and that has to be a season-high."
2. Michael Hoomanawanui
"[He had] three stuffed runs allowed. He did draw a holding penalty, though I don't know why the Chargers saw a need to hold him."
3. Tom Brady
"He was average in this game. That interception before halftime, you can't do that. You just can't. It took points off the board and screwed up that first half-second half thing they like to do. There was pressure on him in this game, but there were some plays to be made. He was just average."
Mazz's 3 Downs
1. Nate Solder
"He sucked. He was terrible in this game."
2. Tom Brady
"I didn't think Brady was good in this game at all, and that interception at the goal line was horrendous. You cannot make that mistake at that stage of the game, given what the score was. Overall, Brady was average at best, which is a credit to them winning it."
3. Brandon LaFell
"They targeted him nine times and he had four catches, and he fumbled one of them. He wasn't god-awful, but he has to be better."
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