Patriots one win from perfection

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Patriots were far from perfect. Yet they’ve never been closer to it.

The offensive dominance went dormant, Tom Brady looked human, Randy Moss was a non-factor and the New England swagger was assuaged. But even less than their best was enough to propel them to what had become, in many eyes, an inevitable Super Bowl berth.

The Patriots scurried past the Chargers in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium, 21-12, and will face the Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Arizona with a chance to complete the NFL’s first 19-0 season. They’re already the first team to go 18-0 in one season, a record that’s doomed – one way or another – in two weeks.

Still, there was no need for Big Papi-style champagne goggles in the subdued, business-as-usual locker room. While the victory was embraced, so was the relief it bestowed.

“It’s just a feeling that you’re a champion, you did it and you didn’t choke,” cornerback Ellis Hobbs said of the atmosphere.

Brady, the league’s near-unanimous MVP, threw three interceptions and was bailed out by running back Laurence Maroney, who had 122 rushing yards and a touchdown. After almost a full season of being overshadowed, Maroney has emerged as a critical ingredient in the later parts of this Patriots path.

Kevin Faulk, another unheralded running back pushed back into the chorus line while the passing game ripped through the regular season, had 90 offensive yards, 82 of them on a team-high eight receptions.

“He always does,” Bill Belichick said when it was suggested that Faulk made some of the most important plays of the game and, in fact, the season.

Meanwhile, the Patriots’ defense stopped every push by the Chargers, holding them to four field goals and stopping three encroachments inside the 10.

The most dramatic stop came on third-and-1 from the 4 early in the third quarter when Michael Turner – playing for LaDainian Tomlinson – took a handoff but was tackled by a blitzing Junior Seau for a 2-yard loss. The Chargers probably were in four-down territory, trailing 14-9, but after watching Seau blow up the play, Norv Turner decided to take the three points.

“The call was made to shoot the gap,” Seau said. “I don’t know if (defensive coordinator Dean Pees) made the call because he knew I was going to do it anyway or if he felt something.”

The Chargers’ ball-hawking defense forced the three turnovers, but the offense couldn’t convert those into touchdowns. The Patriots, meanwhile, were able to turn one of Philip Rivers’ two interceptions into a touchdown, a series that Norv Turner said was a turning point in the game and gave the Patriots a 14-6 lead with 3:51 left in the first half.

How untypical were Brady’s struggles? Well, he had eight interceptions in the regular season and three Sunday. It had been two years since he had thrown a red-zone interception, a streak that included 214 passes and 62 touchdowns, before he was picked off in the third quarter. And he and the Patriots were held scoreless in a quarter for the first time in 19 quarters of play as the Chargers brought a 3-0 lead into the second quarter.

“Any way you get the win is great,” Brady said. “I think you come into a game like this, you want to play your best and I don’t think we necessarily played our best. But at the same time, you have a chance to redeem yourself and play in the biggest game of the year.”

Brady didn’t wait that long for redemption. After throwing that third interception on third-and-goal from the 2, Brady and the Patriots came back with confidence to turn a 14-12 lead into a 21-12 advantage. The drive was moving at such a clip that it seemed the Patriots decided to slow down once they got inside the 10 so Brady could get back on track, and after four straight touches by Maroney for 34 yards, Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard touchdown.

Trailing by two scores, the Chargers again were driving in the fourth quarter. But on fourth-and-10 from the Patriots’ 36 with 9:21 remaining, Turner decided to punt. The Chargers never saw the football again as the Patriots ran out the clock with a plodding 15-play drive that went 65 yards and ended with Brady taking a knee awash in confetti.

“We came in with every intention of winning the football game,” Turner said. “You can’t really stop them, you can only contain them, and we contained them.”

While some Patriots – and the rest of the country – had become somewhat accustomed to winning large, rolling to easy blowouts, the guys who have won championships here before were very comfortable, even if the score differential wasn’t.

“These are the games we’re used to,” Tedy Bruschi said. “This is what we consider Patriots football.”