The Los Angeles Chargers will try to stop the New England Patriots from advancing to their 8th consecutive AFC title game when these two teams square off in the AFC Divisional Round playoffs on Sunday January 13th at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
After knocking off the Baltimore Ravens, the Los Angeles Chargers must be feeling very confident about themselves. However, if there’s one man who has something in his mind right now, it’s Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers who has not won a game- regular season or playoffs, against the Patriots since becoming the starter in Los Angeles. Rivers will try to break his seven game losing streak against New England on Sunday.
Rivers had a fantastic season for the Chargers as he threw for 4,308 passing yards with 32 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing 68.3% of his passes. Melvin Gordon led the ground assault with 885 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. However, Gordon is questionable to play in this game after leaving the Baltimore game with a knee injury. Keenan Allen led the Chargers with 1,196 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns.
The New England Patriots were two different teams this season. One was a team that won just thrice on the road all season long while the other was an unbeaten home team which went 8-0 SU at Gillette Stadium this season. The Patriots hope that the trend continues when they host the Chargers on Sunday.
Tom Brady wasn’t as dominating as he was in previous season but the future Hall-of-Famer was still sensational. Brady threw for 4,355 passing yards with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 65.8% of his passes. The Patriots’ ground game was led by Sony Michel who rushed for 931 yards with six rushing touchdowns while the air attack was presided by Julian Edelman who caught 74 passes for 850 yards with six touchdown passes caught.
The Chargers are 6-1 SU in their last seven games played and 5-0 SU in their last five games on the road. The Patriots are 10-3 SU in their last 13 games played and 5-0 SU in their last 5 games played at home. Head to head, New England is 7-1 SU in their last 8 games against the LA Chargers and 8-1 SU in their last nine home games against the Chargers.
The Chargers’ defense did an excellent job against the Ravens. Los Angeles has now held six opponents to under 300 yards this season and the Chargers have also allowed less than 100 yards rushing in five out of their last seven games. But in the Patriots, the Chargers are facing a different level of challenge.
New England has been sensational at home. The Patriots are scoring an average of 32.9 points per game at the Gillette Stadium and won six of their eight games there by double digits. During their current 8-game winning streak, the Patriots have scored at least 24 points per game. It also helps that New England is 22-4 all-time.
The Chargers have won their last eight non-home games and have won their last five game outright when they are betting underdogs. Los Angeles also looks like the more balanced team between the two. On the other hand, this may not be the best New England team in years but you just can’t ignore their reputation.
New England has outscored their last three opponents at home by an average margin of 20.3 points per game and have not lost a home games since October 2017. Unless it finally happens, I’m not betting against New England’s reputation, playoff experience and home court advantage. We’re picking the New England Patriots to beat the Los Angeles Chargers on 1/13/19.
The LA Chargers are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games played The Chargers are 5-0 ATS in their last five games on the road. The Patriots are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games played and 4-1 ATS in their last five games against the Chargers. Similarly, New England is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games played in Foxboro.
The Patriots have covered six out of their last eight home games and in all those games, New England was favored by at least 5.5 points. They are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 Divisional Playoff games and 4-1 ATS in their last five games played in the month of January. The Pats have just been too formidable at home that it’s hard to bet against them. Prediction: Patriots -4
The total has gone under in four out of the last five games played by the Chargers. The under is 4-2 in the Chargers’ last six road games. The total has gone under in 11 out of the 16 games played by the Patriots this season. New England also saw the undergo 6-2 in their eight home games played this season. Head to head, the under is 7-3 in the last 10 games played between these two teams.
The under is 4-0 in the Chargers’ last four playoff games played and 4-1 in their last five games overall. The total has gone under in the last four games played by the Patriots and in eight out of their last nine overall games played. Prediction: Under 47
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