FOXBORO, Mass. -- Give the defense credit.

No, strike that.

Give them a lot of credit.

"It was probably our turn to win a game," said linebacker Mike Vrabel.

Maybe.

But there's no question that holding the Chargers to field goals three times when they were all but knocking on the Patriots' goal line was the key to the New England's win.

"It was crucial that we had those red-zone stops,'' said Tedy Bruschi. "I mean, when you hug your coach after you've won the AFC championship and the first thing he says was, `Great job in the red area,' you know it was important.''

Yes, it was.

On a day when Tom Brady threw three interceptions and the vaunted offense only put up 21 points, a day not conducive to scoring a lot of points, making the Chargers settle for field goals instead of touchdowns was huge.

"It's something we've been emphasizing, and of course we've had our struggles early in the year,'' Bruschi added. "It's great to see in the biggest game of the year that we come up and force them to kick field goals, because when our offense can get in the end zone and they are scoring field goals, that puts us up."

Vrabel took it a step further.

"We were very prepared," he said. "The coaching staff really had a good grasp on what they were trying to do when they were down there in the red zone. They would see a formation and we were able to check into something and get the right play called and do a nice job with it.

"Yeah, I think that was the Patriots of old, where you would just kind of hang around and make the big plays and make the plays when it counted, and the defense would play well in the red zone, force them to kick field goals."

"All year long we were either giving up touchdowns or we were playing great," Vrabel said. "There was no in between. I think you saw the great tonight."