Patriots Strong Second Half Dooms Chargers

[This article was originally published on Thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.]

This past Sunday, the New England Patriots were in town to play the Chargers in a nationally televised game.

This was a big game.  An important game.  One that had playoff implications for both teams.  The first half was a see saw affair, with the Patriots scoring first on a 22 yard field goal by Stephen Gosktowski.  But the Chargers scored the next fourteen points on a touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Malcom Floyd and a 53 yard fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by defensive back Darrell Stuckey.  It was the Patriots turn next and they scored ten points to end the half.

After the break, you got the feeling that the Patriots were on the verge of something big.  An injury to punter Mike Scifres in the first half meant that kicker Nick Novak would have to take over punting duties for the Chargers and in the second half the Chargers lost the battle of field position.  Every Patriot possession seemed to start from their 40 yard line because the Chargers couldn’t seem to move the ball beyond their 30 yard line.  And though Tom Brady wasn’t having a particularly Tom Brady-like day, when you start your drives near midfield, you are eventually going hit pay dirt.

And in the fourth quarter, the Patriot struck gold twice, scoring 10 points that would be the difference in an otherwise, tight game.

Final Score: Minute Men – 23, Scoreless Second Half Chargers – 14

Sunday Night Football always attracts a big crowd and there were many Patriot fans in attendance.  They must have heard about the great weather we were having out here and decided to join us for this game.  I overheard some fans with distinct northeastern accents mentioning how that this was great…if I recall correctly, they said the weather was “wicked good”.  Okay, I made that wicked good part up, but they were having a great time and did mention the mild weather…as if to lord it over their relatives and friends who were stuck in the cold back east.

We did have good weather.  It was about 70 degrees at kickoff and I came to the game wearing shorts.  Weather this good in December means that the Chargers Girls get to wear the equivalent of “shorts”, their regular skimpy uniforms.  Same old, same old.

Once again, I ventured out to the Bud Light Power Party to visit the Charger Girls and take some posed photos of the other two lines that I didn’t snap the last game.  Here’s a few samples of what I got.

The rest will be posted on my personal blog in a few days.

Since this was a nationally televised game, the Chargers organization arranged for a special half time performance of local band P.O.D.  What that meant for me was the return of the big stage in front of my section…so I got no photos of the Katelyn’s line and only a few photos of some of Clarisse’s line…heavily cropped photos and not what I would consider my best stuff.

Fortunately, they moved the stage after half time and my view of Angela’s and Natalie’s lines were blissfully unaffected.

So let’s begin with the three line Captains that I did get some photos of…Clarisse, Angela M. and Natalie.  My apologies to Katelyn and her girls.

This week’s Charger Girl of the Day is our first two time winner of the season. She’s a second year veteran who hails from San Diego and someone whom I refer to as the CG’s golden girl. Introducing…Lindsay!

Lindsay was killing it during this one sequence.

Okay, so here’s a couple of photos of a portion of Clarisse’s line: Elizabeth, Shelbi, Dominique and Alex.

We continue our coverage with Angela’s line: Denise, CGOTD Lindsay, Tinaiya, Anjelica, Delani, and Jayme.

I must admit that I did not get a clean, useable shot of Jayme this week.  My apologies to her, but I did include a photo of her from a prior week for her fans.

We conclude this week’s abbreviated coverage with Natalie’s line: Alexis, Tina, Alexa, Devin, Bridget C. and Gabrielle.

Sunday Night Football is a great game environment.  There’s a more electric buzz at the stadium and the opponent usually means a marquee match up to watch.  But for me, there’s a downside to all this pomp and circumstance.  It’s a night game.  The lighting is bad. There are more people on an already crowded sideline.  And there’s usually some big entertainment act that requires a stage…a stage that they store in my section…a stage that blocks my view of the game and more importantly, the Charger Girls.

So yeah, Sunday Night Football…good game to watch…bad game to shoot.

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For more cheerleader articles, please visit my personal blog: thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.