FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- How has Junior Seau done it?
How has he played 18 years at linebacker in the NFL, where concussions and splintered bones are as much a part of life as grease burns are for a fast food worker?
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| Junior Seau is the senior member of New England's high-mileage linebacker corps. (Getty Images) |
The youngster of the starters is Adalius Thomas, and he's in his eighth year.
The Patriots linebackers are by far the oldest unit on this team, and thus their matchup against San Diego's vaunted running backs in Sunday's AFC title game against the Chargers will be interesting to watch. San Diego has as deep, quick and powerful a blend of running backs as there is in football.
So it will be the experienced (see: aged) Patriots linebacker group vs. the young legs of the Chargers. Senile vs. virile.
Don't count the old men out just yet.
The New England defense has struggled recently, but the Patriots have played seven of the NFL's top 10 offenses this season, and in each of those games, the Patriots held that offense under its season average.
Against Jacksonville, the Patriots didn't look so mighty, giving up a number of long drives. It was very un-New England-like, and the Patriots know it.
"We're going to have to start the game a little better," Vrabel said. "We have to get off the field on third down. Other than that, we have to continue in the same manner, which we play a very complementary game. We've just got to get our offense the ball. It's like they are so good that if you give them the ball enough, they are going to score. We just couldn't get off the field last week; you know, nine-, 10-, 11-, 12-play drives. We're going to try to limit that like we do every week."
Five keys to the running game (San Diego generating one and New England stopping it) include:
The obvious. LaDainian Tomlinson is injured, but he's still dangerous. At 70 percent, he's better than many other backs at 100. The Patriots will try to slow Tomlinson down. Well, duh.
The tight end. Antonio Gates might not play, and this could impact the game in more ways than people think. The Chargers will miss his offense, but if he sits, that might free hard-hitting Rodney Harrison to help more in stopping San Diego's run attack.
The elderly. There are some scouts this week who wondered if the old legs of the Patriots defense are finally catching up with them. We'll see.
The coaches. Belichick is Hall of Fame bound because he constantly devises schemes to stop the opposing offense's most potent weapon. That's clearly Tomlinson. (Duh, part two.)
The X-factor. Darren Sproles. He's a faster Dave Meggett. His quickness and speed could give the Patriots huge problems.
Now, back to Seau. He met with the media Thursday and talked about playing his old team again. Tomlinson credited Seau with helping to build the San Diego organization into a winner. Was he emotional about playing his old team?
Said Seau: "I try not to get too Oprah with it."
