The Los Angeles Chargers have an unexpectedly favorable matchup looming in the Wild Card Round against the second-seed New England Patriots.
Not only are the Patriots one of the few teams on the AFC side of the bracket without a dominant pass rush, but the inexperience of their quarterback could leave an opening for the Chargers defense to dominate the game.
In any event, their path to victory lies in winning the small battles on a down-to-down basis.
As a result, Los Angeles's struggles on special teams this season could quickly come back to bite them in the most painful way possible.
The Chargers need everything in their favor against the Patriots, or the result could be a painful defeat
Amidst the numerous storylines of poor injury luck that have surrounded the Chargers this season, the sub-par play of their special teams unit has been somewhat overshadowed.
Cameron Dicker has been excellent, but he has had inconsistencies with his long snapper that have introduced unnecessary difficulties into his kicks.
More glaringly, there have been penalties and missed tackles on kick and punt returns that have yielded their opponents excellent field position. This is where the tension point will lie against New England.
The Patriots were first in the NFL through the regular season in yards gained per punt return, averaging a stellar 17.3. The Chargers, meanwhile, gave up the third-most yards per punt return at 14.5.
While they've only given up one punt return touchdown on the season, it does not take a highlight-reel play such as that to shift a game. Rookie kicker Andres Borregales is 4-for-4 this season on field goal attempts of 50 or more yards. Granting excellent field position to New England on multiple drives, or even just one drive at the wrong moment, could prove to be disastrous.
If Los Angeles has any shot at winning, they will need to drag the Patriots down into a defensive dogfight. Given the way that Drake Maye has played this season, this will not be an easy task. It will require dominance in virtually every facet of their non-offensive game.
However, if they are able to accomplish this goal, Justin Herbert has proved he is capable of pulling off superhuman feats when he has been given the chance.
If the Chargers' special teams play takes that opportunity away from him, it would be perhaps the most painful way that fans could suffer another playoff loss.