In The Red Zone – Chargers (1-0) at Patriots (1-0) Preview – Week 2

This Week

The New England Patriots host the San Diego Chargers at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA on Sunday evening. It is a rematch of last season’s AFC Divisional playoff game won by the Patriots, 24-21. Game time is 8:15 p.m.

Here are the rosters for the Chargers and the Patriots.

The Line/Prediction

As of Tuesday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -3.5 points, the over/under is 46.5.

My prediction is Patriots 28, Chargers, 21. Give the points, take the over.

Tickets

The game is reported as a sell out.

Tickets to game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to have tickets and you are going to the game make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from the American Weather Service.

Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

NBC is televising the game, it is the national Sunday Night Football Game. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Al Michaels with John Madden doing game analysis. The entire country gets the game along the the NBC Network.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Capelleti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 5 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

For the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

The game will also be broadcast nationally by Westwood One. Dave Sims and BobTrumpy will call the game. Find a Westwood One station near you.

Last Week

The Patriots won on the road routing the Jets, 38-14. The Chargers won at home defeating the Bears, 14-3.

History

This is the 35th meeting all-time between the two teams dating back to the AFL. The Patriots hold an 18-14-2 series advantage although the Chargers have won the last two regular season meetings the last one a 41-17 win in 2005 at Gillette Stadium.

Prior to 2002 the Patriots had won ten-in-a-row against San Diego dating back to 1970, the final AFL season.

Connections

Patriots linebacker Junior Seau played for the Chargers for 13 seasons from 1990-2002 and earned 12 consecutive Pro Bowl berths. He was San Diego’s team MVP for five straight seasons from 1997-2001.

Patriots guard Stephen Neal was born in San Diego and attended San Diego High School, where he was a five-sport athlete, lettering in football, wrestling, swimming, tennis and track & field.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was the New York Jets’ assistant head coach/secondary in 1997, when Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal played for the Jets.

Chargers head coach Norv Turner was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2005, when Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss played for the Raiders.

Chargers fullback Andrew Pinnock was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was named “Mr. Football” in Connecticut in 1998 playing for Bloomfield High School.

Other News

This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Chargers. You can also see what Chargers head coach Norv Turner had to say during his Wednesday conference call with the New England media.

The Chargers are one of only three non-division opponents to which Tom Brady has multiple losses in his career (2). The others are Denver (5) and Indianapolis (3).

This week’s game marks the second of two straight playoff rematches to begin the 2007 season. New England defeated the New York Jets last week in a rematch of their wild card playoff game from last season.

This week’s game will mark just the second time in team history that the Patriots will play their home opener on a Sunday night, with the other occasion coming on Sept. 13, 1998 – a 29-6 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, the Patriots have had the NFL’s best defense at home. New England has allowed an average of just 15.76 points per game.

The Patriots’ 36-9 home record since 2002 (including regular-season and playoff games) is the second best in the NFL over that span.

The Patriots will be without safety Rodney Harrison who was suspended for 4 games by the NFL as well as defensive end Richard Seymour and wide receiver Troy Brown who are on the PUP List.

News from this weeks opponent:

The Chargers believe they’ve developed a game-day focus that comes with maturity. In fact, the Chargers have taken it a step further resisting the temptation to trash-talk the Patriots, this week’s opponent that eliminated the Bolts in last year’s playoffs.

Too bad it didn’t stay that way. My guess would have been Shawne Merriman but LaDainian Tomlinson, one of the Patriots biggest critics after last seasons playoff loss to them, chimed in on the allegations of the Pats stealing signals from their opponents.

“I think the Patriots actually live by the saying, ‘If you’re not cheatin, you’re not trying,'” Tomlinson told reporters in San Diego. “I mean, I think that’s the way … they live off that statement. You keep hearing the different stories of people complaining about stuff that they do. So I’m not surprised.” DING, DING, DING. We have a winner for jackass billboard material!!!!

If you recall Tomlinson was upset after the loss calling the Patriots “classless” and saying “it comes from the coach”. Everyone had thought that Tomlinson had kissed and made up with the Pats at the Pro Bowl but I guess his brain forgot to tell his mouth.

Head Coach Norv Turner said Monday that the team’s inability to sustain a long drive early against Chicago contributed to the fact that they didn’t get as many players involved as they’d like. The Chargers gained just five first downs in the opening half.

Next Week

The Patriots will host the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA in a battle of AFC East rivals.