2018 Week 7 Charger Power Rankings

[Bolt-O]

As expected, a little bump down in the ratings, and mixed in the rankings.

Summary:

ranks2018.jpg

(Thurs) Vegas Insider - 9, 103.49

Ranking blurbs follow

[Bolt-O]

Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports 6 (LW 7)Walter Football 11 (LW 11)

(same as last week... he thinks the Chargers are overrated...)

Sorry, I thought I was a member of the national media for a second. Yes. The Chargers only lost to the Rams and Chiefs. This is true. So what? They got blown out in both games. They barely beat C.J. Beathard at home. Their other three wins are against the Bills, who suck, the Raiders, who suck, and the Browns, who saw Baker Mayfield get hurt in the first quarter, and the Titans, who shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. None of those teams have winning records.

The Chargers can't defend the middle of the field, and their pass rush isn't very good. I don't trust their offensive line either, and they have a shaky coaching staff. They have reached obscene levels of overrated, and I can't wait to make money betting against them.

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Elliot Harrison, NFL.com 6 (LW 6)

Whether the Chargers are playing in SoCal or on the Wembley pitch, those powder blues are splennnnndid. They might be the best look in all of pro football. Especially enjoyed Keenan Allen's long-sleeve, monochrome, sky-blue look, if not his meltdown and pylon kick. Meanwhile, Philip Rivers continues to successfully search for any and all receivers, be it Tyrell Williams, Mike Williams or even Antonio Gates, who is 60 years old. The deep ball to Mike Williams was nice. The deep ball to Tyrell was gorgeous and, dare I say, MVP like. Chargers have no room above them to move up, though
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[Bolt-O]

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports 5 (LW 6)

They've won five straight games to put that 0-2 start a long way in the rearview mirror (sic). Philip Rivers has been outstanding.

-note... Chargers started 1-1
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Rebecca Toback, SB Nation 5 (LW 5)Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk/NBC 5 (LW 6)Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News 6 (LW 5)Matt Verderame, Fansided.com 5 (LW 5)

The Chargers might be the most complete team in the AFC.
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[Bolt-O]

USA Today 5 (LW 5)

They've won 11 of 14 dating to last season even while enduring the absence of so many key contributors, notably Joey Bosa and, Sunday, Melvin Gordon.
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ESPN 5 (LW 8)

Who they need more from: DE Melvin Ingram. With the absence of Joey Bosa, Ingram will need to be more of a factor in the Chargers' pass rush. According to ESPN Pass Rush Metrics using NFL Next Gen Stats, the Chargers have won their pass rushes in 2.5 seconds or less on 43 percent of plays, which ranks 26th in the NFL.
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MMQB 7 (LW 8)Reddit u/NFLPowerRankers 5 (LW 6)

Unlike the last time the Chargers had a match on the hallowed Wembley pitch, they won. However, even with Melvin Gordon out of commission, it was a game that was closer than it really needed to be. The Chargers offense made big plays the name of the game, but they struggled to do much else. The defense did just enough to win the game, but a win's a win. The Chargers are 5-2 through the first 7 games for the first time since 2014 and will emerge from the bye with Melvin Gordon and Joey Bosa raring to go.

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Bleacher Report Consensus 7 (LW 7)

[foreigner]

Walter Football.. must be Broncos Fans. Raider Fans dont really have a brain.

[blueman]

Walter Football.. must be Broncos Fans. Raider Fans dont really have a brain.

Blown out? If we got lucky against the Titans then KC got lucky against us.

[richpjr]

The guy who runs Walter Football is Walt Cherespinsky who is some guy from Philadelphia. He also predicted the Raiders would be 10-6 this year and finish ahead of the Chargers.

[RTPbolt]

Id say 7-10 is about right. Had an off game with Gordon out and coming out so fast with big plays it kept the D on the field. D needed to play better...im sure the next 2 weeks will be a focus to correct what they saw happen. We still have a solid team with a top offense. D doesnt have to be perfect but it needs to make stops to get the O enough chances. Im sure we learned ftom this last game.

[Formula 21]

The team spent 10 days on the road with games 3 hours early and 9 hours early. Two wins when teams travelling east generally do poorly is pretty good.

But the tackling must improve. That will cost us more than special teams.

[Bolt-O]

Summary posted, Wednesday blurbs:

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Rotoworld 5 (LW 5)Pro Football Focus Elo 5 (LW 9)

Despite their close call in London, the Chargers are one of the low-key good teams in the NFL, and a reason why the Chiefs division win probability is near 80% and not 90% like the Rams and Patriots. Their only two losses are to the Rams and Chiefs, and they have just the 19th most-difficult schedule in terms of PFFELO moving forward. Watch out for the bolts.
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Teddy Covers - Covers.com 8 (LW 11)

With Melvin Gordon sitting out last week, backup RB Austin Ekeler got 17 of the Chargers 20 touches for running backs, but gained only 3.5 yards per carry.

[Bolt-O]

DVOA summary from Football Outsiders:


Columns:

Rank
Team
Total DVOA
Last Week
DAVE
DAVE Rank
W-L
Offensive DVOA
ODVOA Rank
Defensive DVOA
DDVOA Rank
Special Teams DVOA
STDVOA Rank

1	KC	39.4%	1	31.1%	2	6-1	35.6%	1	8.6%	26	12.4%	1
2	LAR	38.4%	2	33.5%	1	7-0	31.9%	2	-5.7%	10	0.8%	11
3	LAC	21.9%	5	17.6%	4	5-2	28.1%	3	0.4%	17	-5.9%	32
4	BAL	21.2%	4	18.0%	3	4-3	7.5%	12	-14.0%	3	-0.3%	15
5	DEN	18.7%	13	13.8%	7	3-4	11.9%	7	-7.9%	8	-1.1%	18
6	CHI	17.9%	3	9.5%	9	3-3	5.3%	13	-15.8%	1	-3.2%	25
7	NO	14.4%	7	15.3%	5	5-1	21.2%	4	8.2%	25	1.5%	9
8	NE	13.4%	9	14.9%	6	5-2	14.3%	5	1.0%	18	0.1%	13
9	CAR	11.9%	11	8.0%	11	4-2	11.3%	9	2.5%	20	3.1%	7
10	SEA	11.7%	8	9.3%	10	3-3	-0.6%	20	-13.5%	4	-1.2%	19
11	MIA	11.1%	6	7.2%	12	4-3	4.4%	14	-1.5%	15	5.2%	3
12	PIT	7.0%	10	10.8%	8	3-2-1	11.5%	8	1.7%	19	-2.8%	24
13	HOU	5.2%	18	4.5%	14	4-3	-12.4%	25	-12.7%	5	5.0%	4
14	IND	4.5%	19	3.5%	15	2-5	-0.5%	19	-1.6%	14	3.4%	6
15	GB	3.2%	14	5.6%	13	3-2-1	12.4%	6	5.1%	24	-4.1%	29
16	MIN	0.2%	21	2.8%	16	4-2-1	1.1%	17	-1.1%	16	-1.9%	22
17	JAX	-3.9%	15	-4.4%	20	3-4	-15.9%	27	-10.7%	7	1.3%	10
18	WAS	-4.5%	22	-3.1%	18	4-2	-4.0%	22	2.9%	22	2.5%	8
19	DAL	-4.7%	20	-2.1%	17	3-4	-8.1%	24	-2.8%	12	0.7%	12
20	NYJ	-5.5%	16	-6.8%	21	3-4	-21.3%	29	-7.4%	9	8.4%	2
21	PHI	-6.8%	17	-3.1%	19	3-4	-6.6%	23	-1.7%	13	-2.0%	23
22	CIN	-8.3%	12	-7.7%	22	4-3	2.2%	16	9.6%	27	-0.9%	17
23	ATL	-11.6%	24	-8.3%	23	3-4	9.2%	10	20.7%	31	-0.1%	14
24	NYG	-11.7%	23	-12.0%	25	1-6	-0.3%	18	10.7%	28	-0.7%	16
25	TEN	-14.2%	25	-11.3%	24	3-4	-16.4%	28	2.6%	21	4.8%	5
26	CLE	-16.0%	28	-13.4%	27	2-4-1	-25.1%	30	-14.5%	2	-5.4%	31
27	TB	-17.7%	26	-14.2%	28	3-3	8.3%	11	22.6%	32	-3.4%	26
28	DET	-18.5%	30	-13.0%	26	3-3	3.1%	15	18.2%	30	-3.5%	27
29	OAK	-21.9%	29	-16.8%	29	1-5	-4.0%	21	14.4%	29	-3.5%	28
30	SF	-22.9%	27	-21.8%	30	1-6	-15.0%	26	3.8%	23	-4.2%	30
31	ARI	-36.6%	31	-31.4%	31	1-6	-39.9%	31	-4.8%	11	-1.5%	21
32	BUF	-43.5%	32	-39.4%	32	2-5	-53.2%	32	-11.1%	6	-1.4%	20

[LIGHTS OUT]

Chargers need a signature win to get into the discussion with the top teams. Week 9 @ Seattle looks like a good place to start.