Patriots Win by Knockout

With almost 13 minutes remaining in the third quarter--that’s just two minutes beyond halftime--the 59,209 fans in attendance were leaving San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in droves.

But at least they made the effort to show up.

Their football team, the schizophrenic Chargers, who lost at home to Tampa Bay and then won on the road in Kansas City, failed to make an appearance Sunday night.

Left unopposed, the Patriots frolicked, prompting ESPN commentator Joe Theismann to remark during New England’s 45-7 victory over San Diego, “This is the worst I’ve seen a professional football team play across the board in a long time. How good are the Patriots?”

The Patriots, featuring the NFL’s worst-ranked pass defense, looked like the 1985 Chicago Bears after beating San Diego for the eighth consecutive time and tagging the Chargers with their most lopsided loss during the five-year reign of Coach Bobby Ross.

New England, stopped at the San Diego one-yard line on downs in the fourth quarter, was denied the opportunity of handing San Diego it’s largest margin of defeat in franchise history. As it was, the 38-point deficit was the fifth worst loss suffered by the Chargers, and their worst since 1988, when they lost, 48-10, to San Francisco.

New England (9-4), now tied with Buffalo for the AFC East Division lead but maintaining the tie-breaking advantage because of its favorable divisional record, ran out to a 14-7 first-quarter lead, extended it to 31-7 by halftime, and with only cheerleaders, ushers and media in attendance, they were ahead 45-7 with 15 minutes to play.

The Charger coaches, identifiable by the befuddled looks on their faces, reacted as if this was some sort of suicide mission after falling behind 38-7. With three games to go, and San Diego (7-6) remarkably still alive in the wild-card derby, the Charger brain trust opted to risk their future hopes by subjecting quarterback Stan Humphries to a beating.

The Chargers had already lost tackle Tony Berti with an injury, which Ross later would describe as a serious blow to his team’s ability to protect the quarterback. Hello, is anybody home?

Humphries, injured seriously six weeks ago, playing with his left shoulder in a harness and probably the team’s most valuable player if it wants to advance to the playoffs, was knocked unconscious with a little more than six minutes to play in the third quarter after Mike Jones, New England’s 295-pound defensive end, landed on his head. “You can second-guess it, but I’ve been behind 31-0 before and came back and won the game,” Ross said. But then not with these guys.

“There was a point while Stan was in I still felt we could win the ballgame,” Ross said. “And I’m going to tell you this, he’ll stay in the rest of the time if I think we can legitimately win the ballgame.”

Humphries was gone for the night with a concussion, and the scene was reminiscent of of the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s,” with the medical staff propping up a dazed Humphries. Team officials said later he was taken to Sharp Hospital to remain overnight as a precautionary measure.

Left behind to describe the carnage, his teammates sounded as if they were the ones who had been knocked silly when asked to explain their up-and-down play.

“Human nature, who knows?” said Charger linebacker Junior Seau. “We don’t know the psychic of players in the sense of tapping in and going out there with a sense of urgency.”

Psychic? The Chargers have been consulting a psychic? Tapping in? What the heck is he talking about?

“We know that we got beat,” Seau said, and that’s encouraging. “You’ve got to take yourself and kind of analyze and see what happened and what you can do better. We have three games and we got to go out and win them. New England just came in and gave us an old-fashioned beating and we have to take that.”

The Chargers turned the ball over six times, had a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown negated by a holding penalty and averaged 2.1 yards a carry against the NFL’s 28th overall defense.

“Probably the only positive thing I could say would be the way we did hang in there and fight pretty hard defensively,” said Ross, and observers insisted Ross witnessed the same game as everyone else in attendance. “I thought after the first two series we played a pretty competitive football game.”

After the first two series, the Patriots outscored the Chargers, 31-7. Smelling salts, please, for everyone in Charger attire.

“I really didn’t think it would go the way it did,” said Patriot Coach Bill Parcells. “It was just one of those nights.”

It was the very best night imaginable for Drew Bledsoe, the Patriots’ emerging starting quarterback, who has led his team now to four consecutive wins. Bledsoe completed 19 of 29 passes for 232 yards and four touchdowns.