Krause: Pats defense learns to stand up for itself

More often than not, the big ballyhoo turns out to be a bust.And on the face of it, that would seem to be the case so far with the bigger, stronger, nastier and – allegedly – better New England Patriots defense.The defense that was supposed to add push to the pass rush hasn’t exactly done so. In fact, the San Diego Chargers’ Philip Rivers joined Miami’s Chad Henne as the second quarterback in two weeks to riddle the defense for more than 300 yards through the air (378, to be exact).But upon further review ? this was Philip Rivers we were talking about. Chad Henne’s one thing. It is tough to justify Henne passing the Patriots silly. But Rivers is a different story. In fact, it could easily be argued that Rivers is right up there with Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees as the four best passers actually on the field playing this season (remember, no Peyton Manning). Who’s better?So, it was going to be a tall order for any defense to contain Rivers. Now factor in San Diego’s receivers ? Malcom Floyd (6-5) and Vincent Jackson (likewise). Neither had much trouble with the undersized Patriots secondary. In fact, Jackson (10 catches, 172 yards, perhaps his best day ever) absolutely ate 5-10 Devin McCourty alive.Also, it wasn’t as if the Patriots didn’t get any pressure on Rivers. If they weren’t close to sacking him, they were close to making Rivers alter his throws. The trouble was, the Chargers’ receivers are so tall, and can jump so high, New England’s defenders were helpless against them. A lot of the time, Rivers just threw it up and prayed. And the prayers were answered.With all that at his feet, it was perhaps unrealistic to expect the Patriots to play shutdown, lockdown defense.But when they had to, they came up with big plays ? a whole lot of them, in fact. Two were interceptions: one by Vince Wilfork and the other by safety Sergio Brown on a badly underthrown ball. They also recovered two fumbles.And then there was the goal-line stand ? always a game-changer.It began with 10 minutes left in the half after Rivers had completed a 21-yard pass to Mike Tolbert, setting the Chargers up with a first down at the New England 5.On the first play, Josh Barrett pushed Ryan Matthews out of bounds at the two. On second down, Tolbert got nothing (with Kyle Lowe on the stop), and Rivers scrambled on third down, only to be stopped at the one by Jerod Mayo and Wilfork.That brought up a fourth-and-goal, from the one, with 8:17 to go in the half. Mayo was there to stuff Tolbert and keep him out of the end zone.A touchdown would have put the Chargers ahead. Instead, the Patriots took over and marched 99 yards for the touchdown that put them up 17-7. (The Pats would ultimately win the game 35-21.)”Huge,” coach Bill Belichick said. “Looks like we got a good push inside and the runner never really got turned up because he ended up going sideways and we were able to make the play.”It was a huge play,” he said. “They were down there for all four plays, so it was huge for us. Then, to get the ball out of the shadow of our own goal line was important too.””That is complementary football,” said Mayo, speaking of the turnaround. “You make a play like that and the offense turns around and scores. It’s great to go out and play like that.”Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.