Charger Report

Chargers predicted to crash and burn with messy playoff exit

The Chargers need to treat every remaining game like a playoff game, to say the least.
Chris Roling|
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Los Angeles Chargers

Just when it seemed like the world was starting to wake up about the Los Angeles Chargers, here comes a brutal end-of-season and playoff projection. 

Despite taking down the Super Bowl teams in back-to-back weeks with wins over the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs…and despite being 5-0 in AFC West play…the Chargers just aren’t an attractive pick. 

Granted, Chargers fans aren’t strangers to having their team go overlooked on the national side. And there are problems, such as the fact Justin Herbert continues to play through an injury behind an offensive line down both Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt. 

Still, one set of NFL playoff predictions would be a disaster scenario for the Chargers. 

NFL regular season and playoff predictions brutalize Chargers

On paper, the Chargers should be able to finish strong. They close the season against a struggling Dallas team, then a toss-up game against Houston before an AFC West showdown with surging Denver.

ESPN’s set of expert predictions, though?  

Those say the Chargers will drop the final two games, yanking Herbert from the lineup and even resting starters in the process: 

“But things got ugly in Week 17, when Houston edge rushers Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter obliterated L.A.'s weak offensive line. It was so bad that coach Jim Harbaugh pulled Justin Herbert at the start of the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. The Chargers then rested their starters in Week 18 with the No. 7 seed already locked up.”

Despite resting starters, the predictions get even tougher for the Chargers from there: The experts have  Jim Harbaugh’s team going out sad against the second-seeded New England Patriots, 20-7. 

One could argue this set of predictions coming true wouldn’t classify as a season failure for the Chargers. They got hit with an unreasonable injury bug early, recovered, but ultimately could run out of gas. 

But Chargers fans have seen Herbert reach some uncanny, MVP-like heights at times this season. The hope is he can do it again when his team needs it most. 

And the hope is that a just-getting-started rushing game with Omarion Hampton back and a quietly elite defense, two factors usually critical in the playoffs, can do some heavy lifting, too. 

Not that the Chargers will mind getting shoved into an underdog role like this so that they can just keep on surprising people, of course. 

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Chris Roling
CHRIS ROLING

Chris Roling has covered the NFL since 2010 with stints at Bleacher Report, USA TODAY Sports Media Group and others. Raised a Bengals fan in the '90s, the Andy Dalton era was smooth sailing by comparison. He graduated from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and remains in Athens.

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