New England Patriots vs Los Angeles Chargers: Game 8 preview and prediction
By Hal Bent
New England Patriots vs Los Angeles Chargers: Week 8 preview and predictions
The New England Patriots are coming off a strong win in their Super Bowl 51 rematch versus the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots allowed just a late garbage-time touchdown to Atlanta and established the running game as a dominant force for the first time this season. As always, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Hogan and Brandin Cooks made big plays on offense to jump out to a 23-0 lead.
The defense was strong as cornerbacks Johnson Bademosi and Malcolm Butler keyed the secondary with strong games. Strong safety Patrick Chung was strong in coverage as well. Atlanta had some gains on the ground, but with strong play on third down conversions (2 of 9) and fourth down conversions (1 of 3) the New England defense stood strong for the first time in 2017 (all statistics from Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise noted).
The Los Angeles Chargers come into Foxboro, MA after a 21-0 win where the defense sacked Denver quarterback Trevor Siemian five times and forced three turnovers. They held the Broncos to just 3 of 14 third-down conversions and stopped them twice on fourth down. The offense struggled to move the ball against the strong Denver defense, but the unit still did enough to score two offensive touchdowns.
There are a number of factors that will go into whether the Patriots will win or whether the Chargers will pull the upset. Who needs to step up for New England on Sunday? What one of the hidden factors that could impact the game, and what will actually happen on Sunday?
Check out our preview and predictions for the Week 8 matchup between the Patriots and Chargers.