The New England Patriots beat the brakes off the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card round, winning by 13 points, but honestly, it felt like more than that. The Chargers couldn’t get anything going offensively, and if it weren’t for a slow start from Drake Maye, this game would’ve been uglier than it was. I don’t think many people saw a blowout coming, but former Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick did, saying that if the Chargers got behind, they had no shot at coming back.

“Yeah, I think it’s kind of like what we talked about last weekend when we kind of previewed the game, Jim,” Belichick said on Jim Gray’s Let’s Go! podcast. “You know, I thought the Chargers would have trouble if they had to play from behind, and they were never able to get ahead and to have control of the game. And you know, once it became a two-score game and the passes increased and the pressure increased, that just didn’t bode well for the Chargers.”

The Patriots’ 13-point victory was the second-biggest win of Wild Card weekend by a pretty large margin. Outside of Houston, who won by 24, no other team won by more than four points last week. It was a dominating effort from the Patriots, so how did they get it done?

How the Patriots pulled it off

The Chargers missed plenty of opportunities in the first half. Most notably, they got a turnover inside the 10-yard line but weren’t able to score any points off of it after turning it over on downs. If they were able to convert that into seven, or even just three points, they would’ve been tied or ahead at halftime. Drake Maye got off to an extremely slow start, completing 40 percent of his throws for 95 yards and a pick in the first half, but the Chargers weren’t able to take advantage, and you can’t expect to stop a quarterback as good as Maye the whole game.

After an abysmal first-half performance, Maye completed 11 of his 14 throws (78.5 percent) for 173 yards and a touchdown in the second half. The Patriots put 10 more points on the scoreboard, which proved to be more than enough to take down Los Angeles in the Wild Card round. Had the Chargers taken advantage of his slow first half, they could’ve put more pressure on him to make big-time throws in the second. Instead, Maye was able to take his time settling into the game, and he eventually made the big play to put the dagger in LA.

If the Chargers were able to head into the locker room tied or with the lead, Belichick thinks this game could’ve turned out differently. By letting the Patriots play with the lead, they allowed them to feel less pressure offensively, and it allowed New England’s pass rush to pin their ears back and get after Herbert, which they did at an extremely high rate.

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“[The Chargers] had a great opportunity early in the game, didn’t hit it on 4th down, then got the ball on a turnover inside the 10-yard line. Couldn’t capitalize on that,” said Belichick. “Those were kind of their chances to get some points and kind of flip the script and force the Patriots to play from behind. But they were never able to do that. And then once the Patriots played from ahead in the second half, Josh [McDaniels] really got the offense on track, and they were more consistent moving the ball.

“And then defensively, the Patriots know how to play with the lead,” Belichick continued. “They played well with their pass rush and put a lot of pressure on Herbert, which you know is an issue that the Chargers have had this season.”

In football, one play can change the course of the game. The Chargers going for it on fourth down from the two-yard line and failing to convert not only cost them seven points, but it also forced them to play from behind essentially the entire game, and it allowed the Patriots to take control and ultimately dominate the game.