By A. Sherrod Blakely
CSNNE.com Celtics Insider
Follow @sherrodbcsnOn more than one occasion Sunday, the New England Patriots were in no-huddle, hurry-up offense mode and there was very little the San Diego Chargers could do about it except literally fall by the wayside.
And so they did. Defensive end Shaun Phillips hit the deck at one point. And play stopped. And the fast-charging, quick-strike Patriots offense came to a halt momentarily. (Phillips actually left the game and went to the locker room for the half, but returned later.)
As more teams like New England look to go no-huddle just to change the pace of the game a bit, you're starting to see more and more defenses combat that with the anti-no huddle gimmick of pretending to be hurt.
"It's not anything we have control over," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said in his weekly teleconference with the media. "We just try to do what we can do, and execute the plays when we get an opportunity to execute them the best that we can. The decisions made by other people, are their decisions."
Belichick added that in the course of a game, there are other ways in which the game's flow are stalled as well.
"We all see now, there are different breaks in the game at all points in time," Belichick said. "You can have the momentum, things positive going in your favor and we stop and review a play or review the score or a play gets challenged or a player gets injured."
What else, coach?
New England Patriots
"Or beach ball rolls on to the field, or it could be a dog runs out there, it could be anything. Streakers . . . things happen," Belichick said. "That's part of being focused and playing through the situation, whatever comes up."
A. Sherrod Blakely can be reached at sblakely@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Sherrod on Twitter at http:twitter.comsherrodbcsn