INJURY REPORT
P Zoltan Mesko (left knee) did return but only to hold.
DT Albert Haynesworth (undisclosed) did return.
CB Ras-I Dowling (thigh) did not return.
TE Aaron Hernandez (knee) did not return.
S Patrick Chung (right hand) did return.
S James Ihedigbo (undisclosed) did return.
THREE THINGS TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT
1. Tom Brady: Yeah, he’s pretty good.
2. Tight ends: No sophomore slump for Gronkandez. As long as those two are on the field — and Hernandez being beat up again is not good — they are a nightmare matchup-wise for defenses. And it’s not just in the red zone. All over the field.
3. Opportunistic defense: The fourth down stop was huge. Devin McCourty made the heads up play by taking out the fullback, which caused Mike Tolbert to lose his footing a little bit. And then Jerod Mayo made a great play to stop Tolbert. Four turnovers will also cover up a lot of yards given up.
THREE THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT
1. Injuries: The Patriots will probably be in the market for a new punter this week. A lot of hidden yardage could be there. The Patriots need to have Hernandez, especially against the Jets. And the defense needs Dowling now that Bodden appears to be in the doghouse with his two holding penalties.
2. Pass rush: There didn’t seem to be much. We’ll have to watch the tape back to be sure. The Patriots will tell you there was a lot of game plan-specific stuff — more surging at end instead of going up the field because of Rivers’ short drops, the ends and LBs were used to help against TE Antonio Gates, and some double teams against him didn’t allow for blitzes — but this is why all these veterans were brought in for the four-man line. Specifically, this was a game for the interior pass rush to really do some things. But the Chargers seemed to handle everything pretty easily.
