FOXBOROUGH, Mass., (AP) — Patriots coach Mike Vrabel left his team’s 16-3 wild-card playoff victory over the Los Angeles Chargers with his face literally bloodied, but an unshaken confidence in his team.
He’s optimistic because although there were some shortcomings by an offense that has sustained his team this season, he believes the Patriots played with a physicality on defense that has arrived at the perfect time.
New England limited Chargers to 207 total yards, the ninth time this season it held an opponent to fewer than 300 yards. The Patriots' six sacks tied for the second-most in franchise playoff history.
“Everybody played. Everybody contributed,” Vrabel said. “Guys went down. Other guys went in there and stepped up. We play a lot of guys on defense. I think they all appreciate that. I think they all have roles.”
Defensive tackle Milton Williams said the Patriots' success is a function of them not making things too complicated.
“We have been doing this all our lives. Keep it simple. We do not need any superhero, superhuman effort from anybody,” Williams said. “Just go out there and do your job and be where you are supposed to be. The rest is going to take care of itself.”
Next up is the Patriots’ first trip to the divisional round since their run to the franchise's sixth Super Bowl title in the 2018 season.
“There has been legacy here for a minute, and we are trying to get our own,” safety Marcus Jones said.
After an uneven performance in the regular-season finale, a win over Miami, New England’s defense was playoff-ready, putting pressure on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert while keeping his wide receivers bottled up for most of the night. The Chargers, who led the NFL this season with 115 third-down conversions, went 1 of 10 on third down.
New England’s offense was 4 of 11 on third down and 0 for 3 in the red zone against the Chargers. Those rates will need to improve if the Patriots want to advance to the AFC championship game.
Williams. In his second game back from a five-game stint on injured reserve with an ankle injury, he played some of his best football of the season. His two sacks tied his career playoff high, which he set in last season’s Super Bowl win while playing for Philadelphia.
LG Jared Wilson, who missed the last two games while in the concussion protocol, struggled in his first game back. He gave up two of the five sacks and four of the five hurries allowed by the Patriots.
Vrabel said CB Christian Gonzalez was not allowed to reenter the game after leaving with a head injury and has since been placed in the concussion protocol.
“Wherever that goes, that goes,” Vrabel said. “Hopefully we’ll get him back.”
2 — With 38 playoff wins in their history, the Patriots have sole possession of second place on the NFL’s postseason victory list behind San Francisco with 39.
The Patriots will play the winner of Monday night's game between Houston and Pittsburgh. The Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers beat New England in Foxborough in Week 3. The Patriots haven't played the Texans since losing to them last season.
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Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston (1) can't hold onto a pass while defended by New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez, bottom, in the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
New England Patriots defensive end Milton Williams (97), linebacker Christian Elliss (53) and linebacker Robert Spillane (14) celebrate Williams' sack of Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) in the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, left, and New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, right, shake hands after their NFL wild-card playoff football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants for projects in states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
The grants supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, including battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, upgrades to the electric grid and efforts to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
The Energy Department said the projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable. Russell Vought, the White House budget director, said on social media that “the Left’s climate agenda is being canceled.”
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said the administration's action violated the Constitution’s equal protection requirements.
“Defendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily — if not exclusively — based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024," Mehta wrote in a 17-page opinion. The administration offered no explanation for how their purposeful targeting of grant recipients based on their electoral support for Trump — or lack of it — "rationally advances their stated government interest,” the judge added.
The ruling was the second legal setback for the administration’s rollback of clean energy program in a matter of hours. A separate federal judge ruled Monday that work on a major offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume, handing the industry at least a temporary victory as Trump seeks to shut it down.
A spokesman for the Energy Department said officials disagree with the judge’s decision on clean energy grants.
Officials “stand by our review process, which evaluated these awards individually and determined they did not meet the standards necessary to justify the continued spending of taxpayer dollars,” spokesman Ben Dietderich said. “The American people deserve a government that is accountable and responsible in managing taxpayer funds.”
Projects were canceled in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. All 16 targeted states supported Harris.
The cuts include up to $1.2 billion for California’s hydrogen hub that is aimed at accelerating hydrogen technology and production, and up to $1 billion for a hydrogen project in the Pacific Northwest. A Texas hydrogen project and a three-state project in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania were spared, according to clean-energy supporters who obtained a list of the DOE targets.
The city of St. Paul and a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit after they lost grants.
Trump said in an interview last fall with One America News, a conservative outlet, that his administration could cut projects that Democrats want. “I’m allowed to cut things that never should have been approved in the first place and I will probably do that,” Trump said in the Oct. 1 interview.
Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the groups that filed the suit, said the court ruling “recognized that the Trump Department of Energy vindictively canceled projects for clean affordable energy that just happened to be in states disfavored by the Trump administration, in violation of the bedrock Constitutional guarantee that all people in all states have equal protection under the law.”
The administration’s actions violated the Constitution, foundational American values and “imposed high costs on the American people who rely on clean affordable energy for their pocketbooks and for healthier lives,” Patton said.
Anne Evens, CEO of Elevate Energy, one of the groups that lost funding, said the court ruling would help keep clean energy affordable and create jobs.
“Affordable energy should be a reality for everyone, and the restoration of these grants is an important step toward making that possible,” she said.
FILE - Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought speaks to reporters at the White House, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
