Week 10 Charger Power Rankings and Ratings

[Bolt-O]

Post bye. Most of the subjective authors don't change rankings for byes.


Projected initial draft position based on a 6-10 record, with a 50% S.o.S.

ranks2017.jpg


Blurbs follow

[Bolt-O]

Chris Simms, Bleacher Report/ PFT 19 (LW 19)Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports 17 (LW 17)Walter Football 12 (LW 13)

The Chargers moved up despite losing last week because they could have easily beaten the Patriots in Foxboro. They had two touchdowns called back by penalty - one of which was a horrible call - and they gave the Patriots five free points on Travis Benjamin's dumb safety on the punt return (plus a field goal on a short field). I'm not saying the Chargers should have won, but they definitely could have. Instead, they just found another way to lose, which is what the franchise excels at, I suppose.

By the way, if Benjamin is reading this and is wondering why he's had the runs this week, it's because Kenny, from our podcast, wished this upon him for his stupid performance against New England.

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Elliott Harrison, NFL.com 15 (LW 14)

The Chargers were in sleep mode this past weekend. I used to keep my PS2 Mini in sleep mode until I realized I could resume play faster if I just put my "Black Kat" game on pause. Of course, if you do that too much, your PlayStation is going on IR. Which gets me to the Bolts, who are healthier than they've been at this point in the season than at any time over the last three years. The game at Jacksonville is going to be a beast, especially for Philip Rivers. Uber imperative: get an early lead and split 35 carries between Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler.

[Bolt-O]

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports 19 (LW 22)

They come off the bye with a long trip to play the Jaguars in Jacksonville. If they are to make a push for a playoff berth, it's a must-win for them.
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Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk / NBC Sports 19 (LW 20)Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News , 24 (LW 24)

Anthony Lynn and Philip Rivers helped the team get off the mat, and Joey Bosa has gotten the defense more revved up. But they might need to make up too much ground in the second half of the season with few breaks on the schedule.

This week: at Jaguars, a long trip back to work
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Matt Verderame, Fansided.com 17 (LW 19)

The Chargers still have playoff hopes in the AFC, but the run must start now.

[Bolt-O]

USA Today 17 (LW 17)

Hope they rested during off week. Next three games are all against opponents who are currently 5-3, a stretch likely to define Bolts' outlook.
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ESPN 19 (LW 22)

Preseason ranking: 24. (Article compares preseason rankings with current. ) The Chargers can't seem to put everything together, and because of that, they've been muddling around the low 20s in these rankings. They rank 22nd in scoring this season after ranking ninth last season and rank seventh in defensive scoring after finishing 29th last season. Maybe everything will even out in 2018?
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Reddit 19 (LW 21)

For the first time in a few years, the Chargers had a fairly uneventful bye week. The team will head over to Duval in Week 10 to play the surging Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags look to end a 6 game losing streak against the Chargers and claim their first win against them since 2007. A win at EverBank Field would be huge for Coach Lynn and Co. and could go a long way for the Chargers to keep pace with the leaders of the AFC playoff race.

[Bolt-O]

Football Outsiders DVOA

	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST WEEK	WEI. DVOA	RANK	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
1	LARM	33.0%	2	32.2%	1	6-2	10.6%	9	-14.8%	3	7.6%	1
2	PIT	29.3%	1	29.7%	2	6-2	16.5%	6	-14.3%	4	-1.4%	21
3	PHI	29.2%	3	29.2%	3	8-1	16.0%	7	-7.8%	10	5.4%	5
4	JAC	24.9%	7	24.0%	5	5-3	7.0%	12	-22.7%	1	-4.8%	26
5	NO	23.8%	5	24.8%	4	6-2	19.3%	3	-9.1%	8	-4.6%	24
6	MIN	19.2%	6	18.8%	6	6-2	9.5%	11	-8.4%	9	1.3%	14
7	KC	15.2%	4	12.9%	9	6-3	20.2%	2	11.6%	26	6.6%	4
8	DAL	14.7%	9	15.0%	7	5-3	18.6%	4	8.4%	23	4.6%	7
9	SEA	13.5%	11	14.8%	8	5-3	3.1%	15	-10.6%	7	-0.1%	17
10	BAL	10.5%	12	9.1%	13	4-5	-13.0%	24	-16.7%	2	6.8%	3
11	DET	10.2%	13	9.4%	12	4-4	-4.7%	20	-7.6%	11	7.3%	2
12	HOU	9.4%	8	9.8%	11	3-5	5.3%	13	-5.7%	15	-1.6%	22
13	NE	8.2%	15	10.3%	10	6-2	25.9%	1	21.3%	31	3.6%	11
14	CAR	8.0%	16	7.5%	14	6-3	-8.8%	22	-12.9%	5	3.9%	9
15	GB	7.4%	17	6.1%	15	4-4	9.5%	10	2.5%	20	0.3%	16
16	WAS	6.2%	14	6.0%	16	4-4	3.5%	14	-7.4%	12	-4.7%	25
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST WEEK	WEI. DVOA	RANK	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
17	BUF	1.5%	10	-0.3%	18	5-3	-6.9%	21	-3.1%	16	5.2%	6
18	TEN	-0.2%	20	-0.1%	17	5-3	1.3%	16	4.7%	22	3.3%	12
19	ATL	-2.2%	21	-3.1%	19	4-4	12.5%	8	14.4%	29	-0.2%	18
20	OAK	-3.9%	19	-3.9%	20	4-5	17.1%	5	23.3%	32	2.3%	13
21	LACH	-7.6%	22	-7.6%	22	3-5	0.7%	17	-1.8%	17	-10.1%	32
22	DEN	-8.7%	18	-9.2%	23	3-5	-13.8%	25	-12.3%	6	-7.2%	28
23	CIN	-8.8%	23	-6.8%	21	3-5	-13.9%	26	-6.0%	14	-0.9%	20
24	NYJ	-15.8%	26	-14.5%	24	4-5	-12.1%	23	4.2%	21	0.5%	15
25	TB	-21.8%	24	-22.5%	25	2-6	0.2%	18	18.2%	30	-3.8%	23
26	CHI	-23.2%	27	-23.4%	26	3-5	-21.8%	31	-6.7%	13	-8.2%	29
27	ARI	-25.2%	28	-23.9%	27	4-4	-15.0%	27	0.1%	19	-10.0%	31
28	NYG	-26.2%	25	-26.4%	29	1-7	-4.3%	19	12.7%	28	-9.1%	30
29	SF	-28.4%	29	-27.6%	30	0-9	-21.0%	30	11.3%	25	4.0%	8
30	IND	-28.7%	32	-26.3%	28	3-6	-20.6%	29	11.9%	27	3.8%	10
31	MIA	-28.9%	31	-29.0%	31	4-4	-18.2%	28	10.5%	24	-0.2%	19
32	CLE	-33.4%	30	-32.9%	32	0-8	-27.4%	32	0.1%	18	-5.9%	27

Future schedule rank is 16th.

There's even a tenth team this year that is above average on both offense and defense, even though it isn't in the top half of the league. The Los Angeles Chargers are 17th in offensive DVOA, but 0.7% is above average. They're also 17th in defensive DVOA, but -1.8% is above average. The Chargers have been doomed by the worst special teams in the league at -10.1% DVOA.