Twenty reasons why New England beat a better team

	The Patriots' Reche Caldwell pulls in a 49-yard reception late in the fourth quarter over the reach of the Chargers' Quentin Jammer. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
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I could write about the New England-San Diego game forever, and I just might dwell on them a little longer than usual before I get to the other playoff winners and losers.

My conclusion: There's a reason New England has been a feared Super Bowl contender for the last six years. You know what it is? The little things. All the little things. Not just the greatness of Tom Brady and the brain of Bill Belichick. In football, the Patriots have made all the little things add up to some very big things. In this case, a stunning 24-21 win over the AFC's No. 1 seed, San Diego, at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday.

Sean Payton, coach of a fellow Final Four team in New Orleans, talked about one of those little things late Sunday night.

"I thought San Diego would win this game by two touchdowns,'' he said from his home a couple of hours after one of the best days of pro football we've ever seen. "Just an unbelievable game. You know what impresses me so much about the Patriots? With all the turnover they've had at wide receiver, the way Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney, guys who were on the street, can function at such a high level with the season on the line, and the chemistry they have with Tom Brady, that's what I respect so much. Because I know how hard it is to get a passing game going.''

That leads my cavalcade of 20 small things that helped the Patriots oust the top-seeded Chargers.

1. Gaffney/Caldwell find a way. In the last two weeks of playoff football, Gaffney and Caldwell have 30 catches for 337 yards and two touchdowns. Indy's Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne: have 16 catches for 180 yards, one TD.

2. No big coaching gaffes. Hardly ever for the Pats. And none in this game. That's what you appreciate about Belichick -- he takes chances, but almost always well-calculated ones. On the other sideline, Marty Schottenheimer did two things that ... well, let me put it this way. I am a Marty guy. Always have been. I have great respect for a man who coaches 21 years and wins 200 games, even if his playoff career ought to be in a double feature with The Exorcist. But this was an awful, awful day for Schottenheimer ... a day that could well help get him fired. His two errors didn't cost San Diego the game, but they hurt mightily.

In the first quarter of a scoreless game, he eschewed a 48-yard field goal attempt by the AFC's Pro Bowl kicker, Nate Kaeding, who hadn't missed a field goal in six weeks. Instead, the Chargers went for it on fourth-and-11. I repeat: In a game very likely to be close, he gambled on fourth-and-11 and paid dearly for it. Three points. Isn't that what the game was decided by?

"I thought we had a play we could use that would make the yardage," he said. "Our intent was to be aggressive.''

Marty, Marty, come on. You demean yourself by trying to defend that call. In the fourth quarter, he challenged a call that had absolutely zero chance to be wrong, a fumbled interception lost by Marlon McCree, costing his team a timeout it could have used in the final minutes. An insane, brainless challenge that will live in infamy.

3. Todd Sauerbrun and the battle for field position. Seven minutes into the game, New England couldn't hear itself think on offense and had its second straight feeble possession. Standing at his goal line, Sauerbrun punted to the Chargers' 30, a booming punt that changed the field position for good.