Week 17 Charger Power Rankings and Ratings

[Bolt-O]

Summary:

ranks2017.jpg


No apparent big swings in the rankings, appearing to recover after the big KC loss. Next week some of these drop off as the focus will be on the playoff teams.

Initial draft position (19) is based on a 9-7 record with a .460 Strength of Schedule.

Chargers also clinched the 2nd place schedule for 2018, will be playing the NFCW, AFCN, and the Titans and @Bills, if the league continues the normal divisional rotation. They probably will be forced to play an international game as well... make it the Rams game, two birds with one stone.

Blurbs follow

[Bolt-O]

Chris Simms, Bleacher Report/PFT 12 (LW 14 )

This was an uninspiring win for the Chargers. I'll give L.A. credit for getting the win in a tough situation. It's not easy -- and I honestly don't think it's fair -- for West Coast teams to play at 10 a.m. their time.

Regardless, the Chargers have not been playing their best football in recent weeks. They were lucky to escape New York with a 14-7 win and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Even though the Chargers haven't been playing great as of late, they're still going to be a pain in the ass in the postseason if they get there. L.A. has a seasoned quarterback in Philip Rivers, a competent ground game, plenty of playmaking pass-catchers and the best pass-rushing duo in football.
---

Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports 10 (LW 11)

When Hunter Henry went down with an injury, the team asked Antonio Gates to do more. And the old timer came up big, with six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown in a 14-7 win that kept the Chargers' playoff hopes alive. What a fun story for the 37-year-old tight end.
---

Walter Football 8 (LW 10)

Some teams have made great strides this year. The Rams, for instance, have transformed into an offensive juggernaut after failing to score at all last year. The Saints, meanwhile, have improved their defense by a wide margin this season.

The Chargers? They've made little strides. A year ago in Week 16, they humiliated themselves by giving the Browns their only victory of the season. This year in Week 16, they almost humiliated themselves by nearly losing to the Jets. They won, but they failed to cover the seven-point spread.

---

Elliot Harrison, NFL.com 12 (LW 13)

Football ain't pretty. Eight penalties, 14 points and 18 Philip Rivers incompletions didn't add up to an outing Don Coryell would've put in his scrapbook. Then again, Coryell often couldn't get his defense to hold the other guys to 37 points, much less seven. If the Bolts are to charge their way into the postseason, it will be on the strength of coordinator Gus Bradley's defense, which rebounded from a tough loss in Kansas City to throttle the Jets. Save for a lone Charger breakdown on Bilal Powell's house call from 57 yards out, Bryce Petty and the rest of the offense were stonewalled. Spoke to safety Tre Boston this week, and he felt his unit could fare better than it did at Arrowhead. The Chargers made Bryce Petty look so bad that folks were wondering why Christian Hackenberg wasn't called upon. Enter the line you're thinking in your head here:

[Bolt-O]

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports 15 (LW 15)

They are still alive, but they need to win this week and get some help. It's possible.
---

Adam Stites, SB Nation 14 (LW 15)Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk/NBC 13 (LW 14)

On Sunday, the Chargers will be playing in the Black Hole without leaving home.
---

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News 13 (LW 17)

The Chargers' 0-4 start still haunts them, but a few things could still break their way to get them into the playoffs and cause them to totally forget about it.
---

Matt Verderame, Fansided.com 12 (LW 14)

If the Chargers beat the Raiders, they need a loss from the Titans and a win from Baltimore. Very possible.

[Bolt-O]

USA Today 13 (LW 13)

Good to see Melvin Gordon finally notch a 1,000-yard season after injuries left him hung on 997 yards in the final weeks of 2016.
---

ESPN 12 (LW 15)

Pre-season expected wins 7.5 : The Chargers' record is still good enough to keep them in the postseason hunt. While Keenan Allen and Melvin Gordon both have racked up 1,000 yards, it's the defense that is doing the best work. Los Angeles has allowed 17.5 points per game this season, its fewest since 1992.
---

Reddit 13 (LW 14)

After the embarrassment at KC, the Chargers did little to assuage the concerns over whether they are able to return to looking like a contender. They racked up penalties, struggled to move the ball against a solid Jets defense and did very little to stop the Jets run offense. They did beat the Jets but tougher tests need to be met with more urgency and better execution. The Chargers return to LA for a pivotal game against the Raiders at the Wannabe Black Hole.

[Formula 21]

Draft position 19. My biggest fear. First team out of the playoffs in the AFC.

[foreigner]

lower draft positions means we have a good team... I welcome all.

[Bolt-O]

OP updated with the summary.

Here is the Football Outsiders DVOA summary:

	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	36.0%	1	41.4%	1	11-4	15.9%	4	-13.1%	6	7.0%	2
2	NO	30.6%	2	33.9%	2	11-4	21.5%	2	-9.3%	7	-0.2%	17
3	PIT	29.0%	5	27.5%	6	12-3	19.4%	3	-7.3%	9	2.3%	12
4	PHI	26.0%	3	30.0%	3	13-2	11.7%	6	-13.4%	5	0.8%	15
5	MIN	25.7%	6	28.9%	5	12-3	11.2%	7	-14.5%	3	0.0%	16
6	NE	22.1%	8	29.9%	4	12-3	28.0%	1	12.0%	32	6.0%	3
7	BAL	20.8%	4	25.4%	7	9-6	-4.2%	20	-16.7%	1	8.3%	1
8	CAR	17.1%	9	19.8%	8	11-4	3.1%	15	-9.0%	8	5.1%	6
9	JAC	16.6%	7	19.2%	9	10-5	2.4%	16	-15.8%	2	-1.6%	20
10	KC	11.3%	10	0.2%	15	9-6	15.7%	5	10.1%	29	5.7%	4
11	LACH	5.3%	12	12.1%	10	8-7	7.9%	9	-5.0%	12	-7.6%	31
12	DAL	4.4%	11	7.0%	11	8-7	5.7%	10	6.7%	22	5.4%	5
13	WAS	2.4%	17	-5.2%	17	7-8	1.0%	17	-4.5%	13	-3.1%	24
14	SEA	2.4%	15	2.9%	12	9-6	-0.2%	18	-5.2%	11	-2.7%	22
15	GB	2.3%	14	0.4%	14	7-8	3.7%	12	3.2%	17	1.9%	13
16	DET	2.1%	13	-5.2%	18	8-7	3.3%	13	6.3%	21	5.1%	7
	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	ATL	0.2%	16	0.7%	13	9-6	9.1%	8	7.2%	23	-1.6%	21
18	OAK	-5.7%	18	-4.8%	16	6-9	3.2%	14	8.6%	26	-0.3%	18
19	TEN	-8.0%	20	-11.2%	22	8-7	-1.1%	19	8.3%	25	1.4%	14
20	BUF	-10.9%	19	-20.7%	28	8-7	-13.5%	26	0.8%	15	3.4%	8
21	ARI	-12.0%	22	-5.8%	19	7-8	-20.2%	30	-13.6%	4	-5.4%	29
22	TB	-13.0%	21	-16.7%	26	4-11	3.7%	11	11.9%	31	-4.9%	28
23	SF	-15.1%	28	-9.8%	21	5-10	-6.4%	21	11.5%	30	2.8%	10
24	CIN	-15.2%	26	-15.7%	24	6-9	-10.3%	24	4.2%	18	-0.7%	19
25	CHI	-15.3%	25	-9.1%	20	5-10	-14.5%	27	-2.8%	14	-3.5%	25
26	NYJ	-16.8%	24	-13.4%	23	5-10	-9.0%	23	5.2%	19	-2.7%	23
27	HOU	-19.9%	23	-34.9%	32	4-11	-10.3%	25	5.2%	20	-4.3%	26
28	MIA	-20.0%	27	-16.9%	27	6-9	-14.8%	28	8.0%	24	2.8%	11
29	DEN	-22.7%	29	-33.9%	31	5-10	-20.4%	31	-5.9%	10	-8.2%	32
30	NYG	-24.8%	30	-22.9%	30	2-13	-8.4%	22	9.2%	28	-7.1%	30
31	IND	-25.2%	31	-15.8%	25	3-12	-19.1%	29	9.1%	27	3.0%	9
32	CLE	-28.9%	32	-21.0%	29	0-15	-21.6%	32	3.0%	16	-4.3%	27

Here is the schedule difficulty. Really simple at this point, only game left is with the 18th ranked team.

	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	NON-ADJ TOT VOA	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	PAST SCHED	RANK	FUTURE SCHED	RANK	VAR.	RANK
1	LARM	36.0%	11-4	33.1%	11.7	2	-0.4%	17	-15.1%	23	16.6%	26
2	NO	30.6%	11-4	25.4%	12.8	1	1.3%	11	-13.0%	22	7.2%	6
3	PIT	29.0%	12-3	30.1%	11.0	4	-0.4%	16	-28.9%	32	14.3%	21
4	PHI	26.0%	13-2	27.5%	11.0	5	-2.6%	26	4.4%	12	12.3%	18
5	MIN	25.7%	12-3	22.7%	11.3	3	4.8%	3	-15.3%	25	6.4%	4
6	NE	22.1%	12-3	24.1%	10.2	7	-3.1%	27	-16.8%	26	9.8%	13
7	BAL	20.8%	9-6	26.7%	10.1	8	-4.1%	30	-15.2%	24	17.7%	27
8	CAR	17.1%	11-4	16.3%	10.5	6	2.4%	9	0.2%	17	6.5%	5
9	JAC	16.6%	10-5	24.3%	9.0	10	-6.2%	32	-8.0%	19	23.6%	32
10	KC	11.3%	9-6	13.6%	9.5	9	-2.1%	24	-22.7%	29	16.2%	23
11	LACH	5.3%	8-7	13.5%	7.5	16	-3.9%	29	-5.7%	18	9.2%	12

[blueman]