New England at San Diego, Sun., 4:30 p.m. ET

	Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has an 11-1 record in the playoffs. Damian Strohmeyer/SI
	RELATED • SI.com NFL experts' playoff predictions

• Numbers to know: Remember last season when the Chargers didn't seem to know how to finish teams off? They worked on that flaw this season. San Diego scored an NFL-high 176 fourth-quarter points in 2006. That trend could be very telling against the Patriots, whose defense surrendered a league-low 51 points in the final quarter this season.

• The angle to pay attention to: If the Patriots can somehow give Tom Brady time to work his magic, San Diego could have a real challenge on its hands. Brady finally looks locked in with his nondescript receiving corps, and his confidence is growing by the week. But San Diego totaled 61 sacks in 2006, and has the edge speed on defense to turn Patriots tackles Matt Light and Nick Kaczur into turnstiles. Containing the Chargers pass rush might be the key to New England's upset hopes.

• The tidbit: Conventional wisdom holds that Denver's Mike Shanahan has the Patriots' number. But maybe it's another AFC West coach, Marty Schottenheimer, who really has the hex over New England. Schottenheimer is 7-1 (.875) in his career against the Patriots, including 2-1 against the Belichick-coached Patriots.

• The coaching front: On the surface, this is a matchup of two very successful veteran coaches who made their NFL head coaching debuts with Cleveland. But while New England's Bill Belichick has been an instrumental part of five Super Bowl champions (two as a coordinator with the Giants), San Diego's Marty Schottenheimer owns just five playoff wins in his long, 21-year career. One more footnote: The Patriots bested one Schottenheimer last week, beating the Jets and their first-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer (Marty's son). They go for the sweep Sunday afternoon.

• The buzz: Everybody knows that Belichick and whomever his defensive coordinator happens to be at the moment are the masters of designing a game plan to take away an opponent's biggest offensive threat. But here's proof: With the Patriots, Belichick is 7-2 when facing a reigning NFL MVP, as New England is this week going up against Tomlinson. That includes beating the Rams' Kurt Warner in the Super Bowl five years ago, and besting the Colts' Peyton Manning a number of times.

• The next household name: You know all about Shawne Merriman, who led the NFL in sacks this season with 17 despite playing just 12 games. But the Chargers' other outside linebacker with that first name -- Shaun Phillips -- isn't too bad himself. Phillips had 11½ sacks and 19 quarterback hits this season, giving San Diego a devastating one-two punch on the perimeter of their 3-4 defense.

• The X Factor: Sorry, Marty, but the onus is on you this time. January has been the cruelest of months for the Chargers head coach, and the only way he can shake the playoff loser label is by winning the two games it'll take to punch a ticket to Miami. Schottenheimer's teams are 5-12 in the playoffs, and three times have lost despite being a No. 1 seed, as the Chargers are this year.

• Most memorable encounter: Though it seems half a lifetime ago now, the Patriots entered Week 4 of the 2005 season with its NFL-record 21-game home winning streak intact. Then the Chargers came to Foxboro. Scoring the game's final 24 points to snap a 17-17 tie, San Diego left New England's vaunted homefield advantage in tatters, puncturing the Gillette Stadium mystique with a healthy dose of LaDainian Tomlinson (25 carries, 134 yards, two touchdowns) and Antonio Gates (six catches for 108 yards).

• My Pick: On paper, the Patriots shouldn't be able to stay on the field with the Chargers. But this is where Belichick and Brady make the difference. Patriots 34, Chargers 31