New England at San Diego

	One of Tom Brady's great strengths is his ability to key on different receivers from game to game. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

• PATRIOTS -- I really think New England having played last week helps them rather than hurts them. They're a team that builds momentum, and I think they'll play better this week for having played last week. I don't know if I feel that way about San Diego. As much of a roll San Diego was on at the end of the year, it's almost like they should have kept on playing, kept on rolling ...

Nobody's better at identifying a team's strength and not letting a team play to that strength than Bill Belichick. It's what he did to the Rams in the Super Bowl, and what he's done to Peyton Manning and the Colts in the past. He's great at taking a single piece out of someone's offense. So I don't know if San Diego will be able to rely on LaDainian Tomlinson. If Belichick stays to true to character, he'll say we're going to take LT away and see if they can win it without him. LT's a great player and maybe he can overcome that, but I've seen New England do it to other great players ...

You can't take one player away from the Patriots offense and beat them. Who's their No. 1 receiver? I have no idea. One week it's Reche Caldwell, the next Jabar Gaffney, the next Ben Watson. It's whoever they need it to be that week. Tom Brady's calling card is he'll use everybody and has confidence in every one of his guys. You can see how much more comfortable he is with his receivers at this point ...

New England is down on talent on defense, but they've had one of their best years ever statistically and might even be playing better team defense than they ever have. I don't think you can overlook what defensive coordinator Dean Pees has done this year.

• CHARGERS -- My gut tells me Philip Rivers will be up to this. I really like him as a player. He's got a lot of moxie. The only thing he doesn't have is experience in this kind of situation. Maybe he won't play great, but he's not going to cave in either. The thing is, in Rivers' very first playoff game, Tom Brady ends up being the other quarterback. You know Brady's been through it before. Who do you want in that situation? ...

That's a good defense in San Diego. Really good. And it doesn't start and end with Shawne Merriman. Linemen Jamal Williams and Luis Castillo are great players, and Donnie Edwards has had a big season. Their front seven is as good as anybody's in the NFL, if not better. You can't just try to take Merriman out of the game, because if the Patriots overemphasize him, there's enough other talent that can really hurt you ...

I don't expect the Patriots to be able to run the ball much against the Chargers, but New England is a really good screen team. If the Chargers want to pressure Brady, they'll be vulnerable to the screen. The Patriots have a million screens and they use them to keep you off balance, with both Kevin Faulk and Laurence Maroney. It's about the same as a short run for them ...

I don't know that the Chargers players even think about Marty Schottenheimer's playoff record. So much of that stuff with Marty is old news. Does Merriman know about Ernest Byner fumbling the ball or John Elway going 98 yards? It's more the opposite effect, in that New England goes in with so much confidence because they know Belichick has been here and won before with them. That gives you a little bit of an edge.