Chargers News: LA Enjoys Shocking Improvement In ESPN Week 13 Power Rankings
After three straight losses, your Los Angeles Chargers now sit at a near-apocalyptic 4-7 on the year. They're out of the playoff picture and currently have a 12% chance of making the postseason.
Given that information, in no way would anyone consider the Bolts to be a top-10 team in the league, especially via power rankings, that typically weigh factors like momentum, health, and recent performances above all else.
Right?
Well, ESPN thought differently:
In their Week 13 edition of their Football Power Index Power Rankings, ESPN has the Chargers slotting in at no. 8, sitting as the only team with a negative record inside the top 10 – let alone being 3 games under .500.
Aside from the Chargers' presence in the rankings altogether, their sitting above the Jaguars, who've won 2 straight games and 7 of their last 8, and being just one spot below the 10-1 Eagles is fairly inexplicable.
Every team in the top 10 excluding Buffalo is more or less a playoff lock, making this incredibly confusing. To dive into it, let's break down what the Football Power Index actually is.
Per ESPN, here's a technical definition:
Football Power Index (abbreviated as FPI) is a predictive rating system developed by ESPN that measures team strength and uses it to forecast game and season results in American football.
This means that the ranking system relates less to team success and more to team ability.
Strictly off of numbers, this ranking isn't that surprising. The Chargers were certainly considered by many to be a top-10 team entering the season, and given the presence and caliber of Justin Herbert, combined with some reasonably solid playmakers on both sides of the ball, this is a team that is more than capable of winning a dozen games.
To that end, this is more a statistically driven saving grace for Bolts fans everywhere than anything else, if the numbers truly favor their ability to perform at a high level going forward, then perhaps their 12% playoff probability has better implied odds than we think.
However, numbers don't tell the full story, and intangible factors that don't show up on a spreadsheet or in a complex statistical analysis end up influencing game outcomes more than initially forecasted.
The numbers often favoring the Bolts, is what causes the level of disappointment that fans experience on a weekly basis. It's always the late-game penalties, the unnecessarily blown third-down coverages, and the collapsing pockets with the season on the line that we look back at in January as we annually ask ourselves: how did this team underperform again?
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