As halftime drew near, the game’s oldest player gazed upward in disbelief.
“I looked at the scoreboard,” said Antonio Gates, who’d seen countless football avalanches in his 16 NFL years, and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ ”
The Patriots buried the Chargers with 35 points in the first half of the AFC Divisional Playoff game Sunday, giving them a lead of 28 points.
Led by Tom Brady and dominant blockers and front defenders, Bill Belichick’s team bum-rushed Gus Bradley’s defense and the rest of Team Spanos out of the Super Bowl tournament on a cold but dry and windless afternoon, inside the same New England stadium where so many visiting teams are outclassed in January.