After a slow start, the Los Angeles Chargers are looking like one of the most unpredictably dangerous teams headed to the playoffs.
Now the Chargers are 6-6 and in a three-way tie atop the AFC West. What once looked like a lost season is now turning into one that could see Los Angeles enter the playoffs as a true wild card (even though they’d in all likelihood be division winners).
Los Angeles isn’t a perfect team, but it doesn’t have to be. The Chargers are a potential monkey wrench that can destroy what many see to be a predetermined AFC title game.
The Chargers are either a team of seasoned veterans or players who will be stars in a few years. Joey Bosa and Malcolm Ingram will both be two of the best defensive players in the league in no time at all and are a big reason why the team is allowing less than 20 points per game. Tre Boston is in the top five of the league for interceptions, while players like Jahleel Addae, Desmond King, and Jatavius Brown are all team leaders and none have played more than three seasons in the NFL. This defense has the potential to be very good in a few years, and it wouldn’t be the first time that a unit got into the postseason and earned much-needed experience early on in the process.
The Chargers aren’t world beaters by any stretch, but they’re talented and unpredictable — that’s very dangerous.
It all really depends on what Philip Rivers shows up. He’s as capable of throwing a back-breaking interception late in a game as he is to drive the team down the field for a game-winning score. Right now the Chargers rank 4th in passing yards and 6th in points allowed, and all signs point to that keeping up as they push towards an AFC West title. The Chiefs are in free-fall and the Raiders barely beat the Geno Smith-led Giants at home. The Chargers have always been a hard to predict team, but their path to a division title is very clear.
The question is, what happens if they get into the playoffs? Don’t count on Los Angeles being an easy out, despite the evidence that seems to suggest that.
There’s no metric for gut feeling, but the Chargers just have that factor this year. Imagine a scenario where Los Angeles travels to Pittsburgh in the Divisional Round. On the one hand, it’s easy to see Los Angeles getting blown out of the water and thrashed by the Three B’s. On the other hand, it could also be a game where Philip Rivers outlasts Ben Roethlisberger in a 12-9 showdown in freezing temperatures. The Chargers aren’t world beaters by any stretch, but they’re talented and unpredictable — that’s very dangerous.
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Los Angeles has exhibited a can’t-quit spirit with this late-season push, which combined with the amount of luck needed seems to suggest that they’re capable of at least giving a good team a scare in the postseason.