Los Angeles Chargers Challenge New England Patriots In AFC Divisional Playoff Action

The Los Angeles Chargers are a team that has been under the radar all season long. Even in their own hometown they’re overshadowed by the Los Angeles Rams. To be fair, some of this is due to circumstance. The Chargers left San Diego saying that Qualcomm Stadium was ‘no longer a viable option’ and is eventually going to move into a state of the art facility on the site of the defunct Hollywood Park racetrack. LA Stadium & Entertainment District at Hollywood Park (LASED for short, at least until someone buys the ‘naming rights’) will be a futuristic looking stadium built at a projected cost of $2.6 billion. The plan was to move into the facility in 2019 though due to the record rains in Southern California during the excavation phase the opening has been pushed back to the start of the 2020 NFL season.

In the meantime, the Chargers are playing in a stadium originally designed for the LA Galaxy soccer team. The official name of the venue is now ‘Dignity Health Sports Park’ though during the 2018 season the Chargers called it ‘ROKiT Field at StubHub Center’. This is what happens when the primary tenant (the soccer team) has a different naming rights sponsor than the temporary tenant (the Chargers). The facility was previously known as the Home Depot Center and later the StubHub Center. Whatever it’s called, it holds 27,000 people which sounds like a lot until you consider that the average team attendance in 2017 was 67,404. They’ve expanded the seating to 30,000 but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the league average. It’s also smaller than the stadiums of 102 of the 130 FBS level college football teams.

This should illustrate where the Chargers rank in stature in their own city compared to the more historically entrenched Rams. The teams will share the new venue (LASED) once it opens but in the meantime the Rams are playing in the 78,500 seat Los Angeles Coliseum. It’s really not a bad idea—the team is essentially starting from scratch moving from San Diego to Los Angeles and giving fans this type of rare ‘up close and personal’ experience at a NFL game is a decent marketing gimmick. An even better way to attract fans is by winning and the Chargers have done a good job of that this season. The Rams have a slightly better record but there’s a healthy percentage of sports betting ‘wise guys’ that think the Chargers are the better team.

The NFL is a league that awards exceptional play in one phase of the game or another. Teams might have a nasty defense or a high octane offense but they are rarely competent in all aspects NFL play. The Chargers are an exception—they’re solid in virtually every statistical category. They finished the 2018 regular season ranked #11 in total offense, #10 in passing offense, #15 in rushing offense and in a sixth place tie for best scoring offense at 26.8 PPG. On defense, the Chargers ranked #9 in total defense, #9 in passing defense, #9 in rushing defense and # 8 in scoring defense giving up 20.6 PPG.

It’s easy to play ‘armchair psychologist’ and conclude that the small size of the Chargers’ temporary home field has something to do with their play on the road. Whatever the reason, they’ve dominated outside of the 310 area code. They’re now 8-1 straight up and against the spread on the road this season but you can also factor in one of their ‘home games’ which was played nearly 5,500 miles outside of Southern California at London’s Wembley Stadium. That means they’re technically 9-1 SU/ATS away from home. This solid road play is nothing new and factoring in the aforementioned game in London they’re 17-7 ATS away from home during the past three seasons and are on a 22-8-1 ATS streak overall.

By now, everyone knows the deal with New England. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are both legends and they’ve dominated the Chargers during the Phillip Rivers era going 7-0 overall (5-2 ATS) and 2-0 in the playoffs. This isn’t a great Patriots team, however and the defense is particularly vulnerable ranking #21 in total yards per game. They’ve done a decent job keeping opponents off the board and the Pats are #7 in scoring defense but at some point the ‘give up a lot of yards’ dynamic just doesn’t work. And if you’re thinking that the Pats’ offense is far more potent than the Chargers’ think again—New England averaged 27.3 PPG during the regular season, Los Angeles averaged 26.8. There’s at least one group with whom the Chargers aren’t the least bit ‘under the radar’–NFL betting ‘sharps’ who have pounded Los Angeles moving the line from a -5 opener to as low as -3.5.

BET LOS ANGELES CHARGERS +4 OVER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS