AFC Championship Game Kribbles: Patriots' O vs. Chargers' D

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The first post-game thought, after the shock wears off, is "we was robbed." Robbed of another chapter in the storied Colts-Patriots rivalry of the 2000s, instead Emperor Norv will be leading his San Diego Chargers - the team most reckoned would be representing the AFC in Super Bowl XLI when last season's playoffs began - into Foxborough to take on the 17-0 New England Patriots.

A few kribbles, then, vis-à-vis the Patriot offense versus the Charger defense.

• Short-term historically speaking, the Chargers came to New England in Week 2 in what was expected to be a test for the prohibitive AFC favorites (the Patriots, that is, not San Diego) and ended up a laugher. Tom Brady went 25 of 31 for 379 yards, three TDs and one pick, Moss hit paydirt twice while compiling 105 yards on the ground, and complaints of the Patriots running up scores was but a glimmer in the universe of the blogosphere.

• That was, as pundits say, a different team - Turner hadn't yet discovered that his QB could hand the ball to LaDainian Tomlinson 25 times a game - but 17 weeks later, the San Diego 'D' figures to do little in neutralizing Moss. Just like the bad blood between these teams generated in the playoffs last year, Moss' contribution to Saturday's victory over Jacksonville has been utterly forgotten under the squall of mainstream post-game reportage.

Yes, thanks to incessant double and triple coverage, Moss caught only one pass; but how about that pass? First quarter, fourth and 5 (!) on the Jacksonville 40, everyone on the planet watching the game knows Brady's going to Moss. Brady went to Moss for 14 yards, and the Patriots were on the way to their first TD of the game. I've written it before about Brady-to-Moss and I'll write it again: No answer.

• Wes Welker, too. No answer for him, either.

• And hey, the Patriots have a running game. Wait a minute; this is the 2007 New England Patriots. Do we need to talk about the run? Oh, yes: Laurence Maroney outdid the much-daunted key-to-a-Patriot-loss F. Maurice Jones-Taylor 122-80 in rushing yardage, 162-129 overall yardage, and 6-0 on the scoreboard.

• No matter this Sunday, perhaps, as the Chargers come to New England with a great run-stuffing 'D', averaging a stingy 107 yards per game on the ground while holding opponents to under 14 points per on San Diego's current eight-game win streak. Even if Maroney & Co. get past the likes of Pro Bowl backup Jamal Williams and Stephen Cooper (who contributed a whopping 16 tackles Sunday, three times finding Joseph Addai), Shawne Merriman pops up to contend with thereafter.

• Speaking of Cooper, did he ever look mean against Indy on Sunday? Are there more like him at the University of Maine?

• On the other hand, in Week 2, the Pats won the battle at the line. Running up 128 yards between them, Maroney and the currently injured Sammy Morris also managed identical 5.1 yards per carry averages; and both ground out those numbers, too, as neither whipped off a single run longer than 14 yards.

• The crushing of Addai, a stylistically similar runner to Maroney, was the second given him this season, and Addai garnered just 99 yards on the ground in the two Colt losses to San Diego in 2007. And again, Morris ain't around right now.

• Surely, the Patriots are going to take it to the air ...

Kribbling all year-round at RealFootball365.com.