Pats ride smothering defense to win over Chargers in wild-card round
Drake Maye completed 17 of 29 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for a team-high 66 yards to lead the New England Patriots to a 16-3 victory over the Los Angeles Changers in an AFC wild-card game played Sunday night in Foxborough, Mass.
Rookie kicker Andy Borregales kicked three field goals for the Patriots, who limited the Chargers to 207 yards of offense. New England sacked Los Angeles quarterback Justin Herbert six times. Linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson and defensive end Milton Williams each collected two sacks.
New England running back Rhamondre Stevenson caught three passes for 75 yards and rushed for 53 yards on 10 carries. Tight end Hunter Henry scored the game's only touchdown on a 28-yard catch in the fourth quarter.
Herbert completed 19 of 31 passes for 159 yards. He also gained 57 of his team's 87 rushing yards.
The Patriots (15-3) had 381 yards of total offense. The Chargers (11-7) were 1 of 10 on third-down conversions.
Second-seeded New England will host the winner of Monday night's game between fourth-seeded Pittsburgh (10-7) and fifth-seeded Houston (12-5) next Sunday in the divisional round.
After a scoreless first quarter, Borregales opened the scoring by kicking a 23-yard field goal with 13:32 remaining in the first half.
The seventh-seeded Chargers tied the game on Cameron Dicker's 21-yard field goal with 6:52 left in the second quarter, but Borregales gave New England a 6-3 halftime lead by making a 35-yard field goal with two seconds left in the first half.
New England had a 9-3 lead after Borregales kicked his third field goal. This one was good from 39 yards with 1:34 left in the third quarter. It was still 9-3 at the end of the third.
The Patriots stretched their lead to 16-3 on Henry's TD reception and the Borregales PAT with 9:45 to play.