Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert<\/a> is seeking his first playoff win. He enters with an 0-2 postseason record.<\/p>\n\u201cTo keep going on in the playoffs is the goal for every team. We\u2019re handling and taking advantage of this opportunity and doing everything we can to be prepared for that,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cExperience is a good thing. I think you learn from what you did right, what you did wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herbert is rested and ready<\/p>\n
Herbert\u2019s health could be a factor in whether he\u2019s able to get over his postseason struggles. He\u2019s just over a month removed from having surgery to repair a broken bone in his nonthrowing hand.<\/p>\n
He was among several starters who sat out the Chargers’ regular-season finale, a loss at Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think not taking hits on it last week was probably pretty helpful for it,\u201d Herbert said of his left hand. \u201cJust getting back to making sure you have full strength and able to hold on to a football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chargers solid against deep passes<\/p>\n
The Chargers’ defense has been great against the pass this season. Among the 12 playoff teams, LA allowed the fewest air yards (1,520) during the regular season.<\/p>\n
Maye has been one of the league’s best at throwing the ball deep.<\/p>\n
According to Sportradar, Maye completed 67 passes of at least 20 air yards, which ranked second in the NFL behind only Matthew Stafford (72). Among quarterbacks who completed at least 20 passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, Maye\u2019s completion rate of 50.7% was third, behind Brock Purdy (63.6%) and Sam Darnold (53.8%).<\/p>\n
Patriots defensive coordinator Josh McDaniels expects Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to throw a variety of looks at Maye.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few plays where they\u2019re going to be as complicated as you\u2019ve seen all year,\u201d McDaniels said.<\/p>\n
Maye said he\u2019s comfortable finding ways to beat schemes that feature extra defenders in the secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from an attacking standpoint, if there\u2019s any coverage, there\u2019s always a void,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Patriots perfect on road, not too shabby at home<\/p>\n
The Patriots were 8-0 away from New England this season, the only team in the NFL with an unblemished road record.<\/p>\n
In those games, New England outscored opponents by 80 points. But at home, its point differential was 90 points. To Vrabel, that\u2019s proof his team can play just as well at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just got to be a tough place to play in January,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cWe need to create a hard environment, we need to play well, let our crowd feed off of us and let us feed off of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in El Segundo, California, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) \u2014 In a year\u2019s time, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has gone from the rookie starter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,2444,2443,6,90336,90337,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-665761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-losangeleschargers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pro_national_sports","16":"tag-pronational_sports","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115863769072589572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665761","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=665761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}