FOXBORO — From the first-quarter red-zone stand to the fourth-quarter strip sack that left Justin Herbert twisted, bloodied and dazed, the Patriots defense manhandled the Los Angeles Chargers in the teams’ wild-card playoff matchup.

The Chargers managed just a single field goal Sunday night in the 16-3 victory that sent New England through to the divisional round. They went 1-for-10 on third down and 1-for-3 on fourth down, and the Patriots’ pass rush, after a sluggish start, overwhelmed Herbert in the second half, totaling six sacks and 11 quarterback hits.

“Just violence and aggression, man,” edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson said. “Just who wanted it more. That’s what this game was all about.”

Knowing the Chargers were weak along the offensive line after losing both of their starting tackles, and that Herbert was playing with a broken bone in his non-throwing hand, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel made stopping the run a priority, hoping to force LA into passing situations. His team succeeded there: Though Herbert found success as a scrambler (10 carries, 57 yards), the Chargers’ 10 handoffs gained just 30 total yards.

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The defense “set the tone,” Vrabel said, by stopping the Chargers on four consecutive plays from inside the 10-yard line after Drake Maye threw an early interception deep in Patriots territory. Slot cornerback Marcus Jones tackled Herbert at the 2-yard line on a third-down scramble — despite giving up 10 inches and nearly 50 points to the athletic Chargers QB — and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

“Such a huge play that ultimately changes the game for us,” linebacker Robert Spillane said of Jones’ stop.

The Patriots stopped the Chargers again inside the 5-yard line on their next possession — head coach Jim Harbaugh settled for a 21-yard Cameron Dicker field goal — then stonewalled their final drive of the first half with back-to-back sacks by defensive tackle Milton Williams and Chaisson.

Williams and Chaisson both were part of New England’s Vrabel-driven crop of offseason free agent signings, as were Spillane and edge rusher Harold Landry II. Sunday was the first time the Patriots had all four of those players active in the same game since mid-November.

“I’m just so proud of this defense,” Spillane said. “We’ve really come together, and to hold an offense like that to three points in a playoff game is huge for it. It just is another boost of confidence for what we’ve already been doing all year.”

The Patriots forced three consecutive punts to open the second half, then created a turnover that all but iced the game with 8:08 remaining.

Christian Barmore bowled over center Bradley Bozeman to box in Herbert. Practice squad call-up Leonard Taylor III nearly wrestled the QB to the turf but couldn’t hold on. As Herbert escaped Taylor’s grasp, he was sandwiched by Chaisson from the back side and Elijah Ponder from the front. As he fell awkwardly, the ball bounced toward the Patriots’ sideline, where linebacker Christian Elliss pounced on it.

Even with more than half a quarter left to play, the Herbert and Co. looked — and were — defeated.

“We knew going into the week obviously the quarterback had been having some issues with his hand,” Chaisson said. “So ball security was going to be a thing. Every chance that we get, man, attack the ball and get the ball out. We knew we’d have opportunities. We talk about that all the time with Vrabes — every chance that we get, just attack the ball with violence and effort. … We knew he had a hand problem, so punch the ball out, for sure.”

Behind that highly active pass rush, the Patriots secondary largely neutralized LA’s air attack despite playing parts of the game without starting cornerbacks Carlton Davis III (second-quarter toe injury) and Christian Gonzalez (fourth-quarter head injury). Herbert went 19-for-31 for 159 yards, and no Chargers player topped 32 receiving yards.

Los Angeles’ second-longest gain of the night came when running back Kimani Vidal — who saw most of the backfield reps with starter Omarion Hampton active but heavily limited — recovered a fumble after a Jones strip-sack and ran for 17 yards.

“They were a big factor,” Harbaugh said of the Patriots defense. “That was a heck of a performance by them. They were able to get the stops, third down, red zone, played really good situational. Played really good coverage. There was some that could have gone either way there, and they were able to make the play. But, yeah, congratulate them. It was a heck of a game.”

A heck of a plan by interim defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr, too, based on postgame debriefs Spillane heard from Chargers players.

“After the game, talking to a few of the guys on their team, they had no clue what we were doing,” the Patriots linebacker and co-captain said. “They came up and said that: ‘We had no clue what you guys were in all game.’”

Vrabel said his defense “played extremely well.”

“I thought they were committed to stopping the run,” he said. “The sudden change was critical. … Secondary did a fantastic job with the play extensions, making sure that those plays didn’t get loose. Just really proud of everybody.”