{"id":670372,"date":"2026-01-12T03:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/670372\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T03:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:08:12","slug":"patriots-lead-chargers-6-3-in-afc-wild-card-defensive-battle-nbc-sports-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/670372\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots lead Chargers 6-3 in AFC Wild Card defensive battle \u2013 NBC Sports Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

What to KnowTurn to NBC Sports Boston immediately after the game for Postgame Live with Michael Holley, Tom E. Curran, Phil Perry and Ted Johnson.The Patriots (14-3) are back in playoffs for first time since 2021.The Chargers (11-6) have won just one playoff game since 2013.Patriots QB Drake Maye is making his playoff debut after MVP-caliber 2025 season.Tonight’s winner will meet the Texans or Steelers in Divisional Round.<\/p>\n

FOXBORO — After a storybook regular season, the real work begins for the New England Patriots as they make their first playoff appearance<\/a> in four years.<\/p>\n

The Patriots (14-3) will host the Los Angeles Chargers (11-6) for an AFC Wild Card showdown at Gillette Stadium. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye will make his NFL postseason debut after an MVP-caliber Year 2<\/a> with New England.<\/p>\n

Mike Vrabel led the Patriots back into the playoffs in his first season as head coach. The former Pats linebacker turned the franchise around after back-to-back 4-13 campaigns under Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo, respectively.<\/p>\n

As for the Chargers, they enter Sunday night’s matchup still searching for their first playoff win with Justin Herbert at QB. The Oregon product is 0-2 in his postseason career.<\/p>\n

Kickoff for Sunday Night Football is set for 8:15 p.m. ET on NBC. Follow our live blog below for score updates, highlights, news, and analysis throughout Patriots-Chargers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to KnowTurn to NBC Sports Boston immediately after the game for Postgame Live with Michael Holley, Tom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,833,7,1014,262,2444,2443,838,249,6,4120,531],"class_list":{"0":"post-670372","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-drake-maye","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-mike-vrabel","16":"tag-new-england-patriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-rhamondre-stevenson","19":"tag-stefon-diggs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115879929722219186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670372","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=670372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}