{"id":656434,"date":"2026-01-05T17:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656434\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:33:13","slug":"5-things-to-know-about-chargers-patriots-wild-card-playoff-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656434\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things To Know About Chargers-Patriots Wild Card Playoff Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

3. What about the quarterbacks?<\/p>\n

There might not be a better quarterback matchup in the Wild Card Round than this one.<\/p>\n

Hence why the game is in primetime.<\/p>\n

The Chargers are led by Justin Herbert<\/a>, who did not play in Week 18 but was simply masterful for the Bolts this season.<\/p>\n

Herbert played the season without Pro Bowl tackle Rashawn Slater and more than half the season without Pro Bowl tackle Joe Alt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Add in other injuries along the offensive line, plus a depleted running back room, and Herbert had a big hand in leading the Chargers to 11 wins for the second straight season.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, did we mention he played the final month of the season with a broken left hand?<\/p>\n

“To me, it was an MVP season with all the attrition we’ve had and what he’s been able to do to lead the team to a playoff berth,” Chargers Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman said last week.<\/p>\n

He later added: “In terms of Justin and what he’s had to deal with this year, I think it’s a career-defining type of year.”<\/p>\n

Herbert threw for 3,727 yards with 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while also setting a career high with 498 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

New England will counter with second-year quarterback Drake Maye, who is among the top candidates for the NFL MVP award.<\/p>\n

Besides leading the Patriots to 10 more wins that they had a season ago, Maye was brilliant in 2025 as he threw for 4,397 yards with 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, also led the NFL with a 113.2 passer rating.<\/p>\n

Both Herbert and Maye are looking for their first-career playoff win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3. What about the quarterbacks? There might not be a better quarterback matchup in the Wild Card Round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[93078,37,884,63112,7,34,38,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-656434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-2025-playoff-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-articles-5-thing-to-know","11":"tag-articles-5-things-to-know-rize-credit-union","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-homepage-cp","14":"tag-homepage-headlines","15":"tag-new-england","16":"tag-new-england-patriots","17":"tag-newengland","18":"tag-newenglandpatriots","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115843694846774369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}