2019 NFL playoffs: Patriots WR Phillip Dorsett explains his wide-open touchdown catch against the Chargers

You’d think for the Chargers more or less rolling with the same old Seattle-flavored defense week after week, they’d be a little better at it.

And if you are going to get toasted on a blown coverage, you’d usually rather it not be by the kid who hadn’t even been TARGETED in 4 of his last 5 games.

No, seriously, look: Phillip Dorsett didn’t get a single look for the 4 games leading up to the Patriots’ regular-season finale against the Jets.

And you know what would be supremely embarrassing, if you were an All-Pro cornerback like Desmond King that was the one getting toasted by a kid with not-quite-300 yards and a scant 3 scores on the season.

Turns out that’s exactly what happened!

Now for the Madden cam!

I mean, free release, off to the races, hand up, 6 points. Does life get any better?

Actually, yes, it does: Dorsett and Julian Edelman knew that was coming the whole week. For everyone who still wants to drop Spygate jokes, this is quite literally just watching tape, making a note like “Huh, I bet they’ll do this later” and then...that’s exactly what goes down.

From NESN:

“Me and Jules were in a stack, and we were talking about it the whole week,” the wide receiver said. “We knew that they might mess it up. They might. Once they hesitated, I just took it, and I knew I was going to get it. I knew the ball was coming, because I knew Tom was going to make the right read.”

“I saw it at the snap, and that’s why I just shot,” Dorsett said. “I just went.”

“You see it when you play teams that play a lot of zone,” he said. “You know where the holes are. You know where they are, and you just try to exploit them. And I think that’s what we did (Sunday).”

Even though Dorsett’s been relatively quiet, figuratively and literally, since he got to New England after getting traded for QB Jacoby Brissett, the man’s been nails the few times his number has been called. Like NESN points out, he’s caught 20 of the last 21 balls thrown to him, and while he didn’t hit an extra gear with Edelman being suspended for the first quarter of the season, Dorsett’s kept a good head on his shoulders and made the most of it.

“We work a lot in practice, and we worked a lot in camp just to get on the same page,” Dorsett said. “He makes it easy for me, and I try to make it as easy as I can for him to just be able to throw the ball, put the ball in different places, and I just try to catch it. I mean, for any quarterback, I would try to be a reliable piece for them. That’s just taking pride as a receiver.”

Phil may not have to wait long for another shot at the end zone, either — unless the Kansas City Chiefs defense has actually been playing the long con and has been good enough to bamboozle Andrew Luck all along, that’s a one-game bright spot in a whole season of shootouts.

Which, really, a shootout in Kansas City in an arctic blast has “playoff classic” written all over it.

Wait. Wasn’t Arctic Blast a Gatorade flavor?