Patriots vs Chargers-Predictions, Match-Ups and Thoughts
By David Smith
Last week the Patriots lost a heart breaker in Green Bay. This week they travel to San Diego to take on the Chargers.
Predictions
The Patriots will be angry when they take the field in San Diego. This week they will be looking to make a statement that they are the best team in the NFL. The Chargers squeaked out a win against Baltimore last week, but lost another center (that makes 4 this year). Chandler Jones should be back in some capacity and Julian Edelman should be a little bit healthier than he was last week. So I expect the Patriots to come out firing on all cylinders.
Last week Brandon Bolden got carries and a touchdown, and I have no idea why. Blount came in and was carrying people the entire game. He is clearly the best running back the Patriots have, I think the team sees that and will use him much more than they have been over the last 2 weeks.
Match-Ups
Brandon Browner on Antonio Gates. That’s basically it. The Chargers are a bunch of no names outside of Gates and Rivers. If the Patriots can generate any sort of pass rush, they should be fine. Baltimore’s pathetic secondary and questionable officiating is what sealed the Charger’s win last week. I don’t expect the Patriots to make the same mistakes as Baltimore.
I anticipate Blount and Gronk to get going this week (although Gronk was seen with Justin Beiber, the team killer). Both should have huge games. The Chargers haven’t been able to stop the run for the past few weeks and Gronk is Gronk, he’ll do fine as long as he stays healthy.
Thoughts
The Chargers at home aren’t the Packers at home. I just can’t see the Patriots losing this game with so much at stake. If they lose and the Dolphins win in Baltimore, the Patriots will only have a 1 game lead in the AFC East. Plus the Broncos will take over the 1st seed in the AFC. I know they don’t want to lose 2 in a row and make everything a much tighter race than it should be. Hopefully the Patriots just win out. They are clearly capable of it.
Final
Patriots-27
Chargers-20