Being raised in South Florida, Joey Bosa said he became accustomed to New England “always whipping up on the (Miami) Dolphins.”
It’s now Bosa’s turn to try to turn the tables for the suddenly red-hot Los Angeles Chargers.
“We know if we want to get to where we want to get that we’ve got to play with the best of them,” Bosa told co-host Gil Brandt and me Wednesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Obviously, Tom Brady and the Patriots are the best if not one of the best.
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“It’s a big opportunity for us without even adding the extra little of it being the Patriots. I mean, them playing the Dolphins all those years ... it’s just kind of funny growing up watching Tom Brady and now I get a chance to play against him.”
And terrorize him like other opposing quarterbacks Bosa has faced.
The 2016 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year is playing even better in his second year with the Chargers (3-4). Bosa has logged 7 1/2 sacks so far this season, giving the defensive end 18 overall in 19 career games.
Bosa’s emergence earned him high praise earlier this week from another familiar face from his youth — Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
“Every play he’s all out,” Belichick said in a news conference. “He’s got good strength but he’s got good quickness and he knows how to use both of them. If you are over-aggressive on him, he’s quick enough to get by you. If you sit back, he is explosive enough to power the blockers into the quarterback or the backfield. He’s got a lot of length so he gets to a lot of plays, tackles, tipped balls and can reach out and get the quarterback.
“You can’t run away from him. That’s not the answer because he’ll chase down plays. Running at him is not the answer either because that’s a problem, too.”
That’s because Bosa isn’t Los Angeles’ only superlative pass-rusher.
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Outside linebacker Melvin Ingram actually leads the Chargers with 8.5 sacks. The 17 produced by the Bosa-Ingram combination is higher than the overall total of 18 NFL teams.
“To say, ‘Let’s just run away from (Bosa),' well … you're running into Ingram and these guys will both make plays from the backside,” said Belichick, whose own club has 15 sacks through seven games. “They create a lot of long-yardage situations and then they just kill you on third-and-long.”
After an 0-4 start, Bosa, Ingram and the rest of the Chargers defense is flourishing during a three-game winning streak under new coordinator Gus Bradley. Bosa, though, said improvement from 2016 is related to more than just the switch from 3-4 to 4-3 principles in a system popularized by Seattle, which is where Bradley was defensive coordinator until hired as Jacksonville’s head coach in 2013.
“The change is a lot more philosophical than the actual schematic defensively,” Bosa said. “It’s all about getting the ball. It’s just a mindset to compete and really get better every single day. You see the change and guys really enjoy the process now.”
A litmus test of how good the Chargers truly are will come on the road against the NFL’s top-ranked offense and its future Hall of Fame quarterback.
“The important thing is to not get into all the different checks and things that he’s saying (at the line of scrimmage),” Bosa said of Brady. “We just need to focus on our keys and what we’ve been working on this whole week and not really let all that get in our heads, but at the same time use what he’s saying to our advantage and maybe try to pick out some checks.”
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If the plan works, Bosa can log his first career sack against a 40-year-old quarterback old enough to be his father.
“He’s going to be getting the ball off real quick,” said Bosa, 22. “That’s been a challenge for us all year, so I think it’s something that we can handle. But we’ve got to understand that he’s going to make his plays.
“We can’t get frustrated. We’ve just got to keep coming.”
Something the Dolphins didn’t do nearly enough during Bosa’s childhood.
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