FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Mike Vrabel talked to his players about being prepared to bleed as the New England Patriots entered their first playoff game since the 2021 season.
Then, shortly after Milton Williams sacked Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert to secure New England’s first playoff victory in seven years, the 26-year-old defensive tackle celebrated with a head-butt of Vrabel — a former linebacker who won three Super Bowls playing for the Patriots, but also a decade and a half removed from his on-field career at age 50.
It knocked New England’s first-year head coach backward and bloodied his lip.
“The big dogs come out in January. I think Milt took that to heart,” Vrabel said. “He came over and got me pretty good. But that’s what happens.”
Drake Maye threw a touchdown pass to Hunter Henry in the fourth quarter, and New England’s defense roughed up Herbert as second-seeded New England beat seventh-seeded Los Angeles 16-3 in an AFC wild-card playoff game Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.
Andy Borregales kicked three field goals for the Patriots (15-3), who hadn’t won in the postseason since their Super Bowl victory — the franchise’s sixth, all of them with Bill Belichick as head coach and Tom Brady the starting quarterback — to cap the 2018 season. AFC East Division champion New England will be home again next weekend for the division round, facing the winner of Monday night’s wild-card game between the fifth-seeded Houston Texans (12-5) and the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7).
In his playoff debut, Maye completed 17 of 29 passes for 268 yards and ran for a team-high 66 yards.
“We made plays when we had to do it,” Maye said.
He also threw an interception and lost a fumble, but the Chargers (11-7) couldn’t capitalize on those turnovers.
New England held Los Angeles to 207 yards of offense and sacked Herbert six times, with one of those resulting in a lost fumble that set up the Patriots’ touchdown.
“It’s on us, what we do. I’ve been saying that all season,” Williams said. “We can control the game. If we do what we need to do up front, we’re going to win.”
This is the second straight season in which the Chargers have lost in the wild-card round. Herbert finished 19-of-31 for 159 yards and was his team’s leading rusher with 57 yards as he fell to 0-3 in the playoffs.
Herbert was just more than a month removed from surgery to repair a broken bone in his nonthrowing hand.
“There was no issue,” Herbert said. “I just have to do a better job holding on to the ball.”
Chargers second-year head coach Jim Harbaugh said Herbert wasn’t 100%.
“He’s a warrior. He just gives it everything he has, all the time,” Harbaugh said, acknowledging the quarterback was limited by his hand injury. “It’s an issue, but he doesn’t flinch, like a warrior would.”
The last time the Chargers failed to score a touchdown in a playoff matchup was their 21-12 AFC championship game loss to the Patriots during the 2007 season.
The Patriots drove into the red zone on their first possession of the third quarter, but the drive ended when Maye was strip-sacked by Odafe Oweh and De’Shawn Hand recovered for the Chargers.
After Los Angeles punted, Maye connected on a pass to Kayshon Boutte that went for 42 yards to set the Patriots up on the Chargers’ 27-yard line. New England settled for a 39-yard field goal that stretched its lead to 9-3.
Early in the fourth quarter, Maye used a 16-yard pass to Boutte and a 13-yard burst by Rhamondre Stevenson to set up his precise 28-yard touchdown toss to Henry as the lead stretched to 16-3.
The Chargers picked up back-to-back first downs to open their ensuing possession, but when Herbert dropped back to pass on the next play, linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson strip-sacked him and fell on the loose ball.
Los Angeles had one final possession, but it ended with Herbert getting sacked by Williams on fourth down.
“It’s playoff football,” Williams said. “It’s going to get ugly. It’s going to get nasty. But you’ve got to keep going.”
The first quarter had lots of action, but it took until early in the second quarter for the Patriots to end a scoreless stalemate.
With the home team’s offense pinned inside its own 10 after a Chargers punt, Maye had a pass intended for Austin Hooper tipped by Teair Tart and intercepted by Daiyan Henley.
Los Angeles started with the ball on the New England 10 but was stopped on fourth-and-2 when Herbert misfired a pass to Keenan Allen. The Patriots took over and got some breathing room via a 48-yard catch-and-run play by Stevenson.
Thirteen plays and a fourth-down conversion later, the drive ended with Borregales’ 23-yard field goal.
Among the problems for the Chargers in New England was their failure to extend possession. The best team in the NFL on third down this season, converting 115 times, they went 1-for-10 on Sunday night, and 1-for-3 on fourth down. (The only successful third-down conversion was a 1-yard quarterback sneak that was initially ruled short but was overturned on replay to give Los Angeles the first down.)
It was the second straight week the Chargers failed to score a touchdown. Asked if offensive coordinator Greg Roman was the right person to be calling plays, Harbaugh said: “Right now I don’t have the answers.”
“We’re going to look at that, at everything,” the head coach added. “It really falls on me that we weren’t at our best tonight. I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. We’ll work hard. It’ll be a new beginning.”