State Of The Union: San Diego Chargers Week 13

The San Diego Chargers travel to Baltimore against the Ravens for a matchup of 7-4 teams. Both teams are 2nd in their divisions, fighting for wild card spots. The Chargers defense is strong against the pass and the Ravens defense is strong against the run. Lucky for both teams, the defenses are weak against their strengths.

The Ravens are 29th against the pass and the Chargers passing offense is 13th in the league. Phillip Rivers leads the Chargers offense throwing to Antonio Gates, Keenan Allen, Malcolm Floyd, Eddie Royal, Ladarius Green, and Branden Oliver. Ravens have too many weapons to contain but their pass rush will be coming after Rivers all game.

Chris Watt is expected to start at center and he will face Haloti Ngata and Tim Jernigan coming up the middle. Terrell Suggs knows that DJ Fluker is weak on pass protect and will attack him all game. Elvis Dumervil will rush from the blind side. The Chargers will win this game if Rivers is hit less than 7 times this game. The outcome will be dependent on pass rush.

The Chargers are strongest defending the pass so look for Joe Flacco to have a tough time getting the ball out to Steve Smith and Torrey Smith. The problem is their run defense and Justin Forsett is coming off a career game of 182 yards and 2 touchdowns last week. They are going to have to contain him and with Melvin Ingram and Manti Te’o getting stronger, watch for their run defense to be faster.

This will be as tough of a game as it gets. With 5 games left, every game is important and this is a toss up. The edge goes to the Ravens because their pass rush will get to Rivers more. I expect the final score to be 24-20 with the Ravens edging out a victory. They will not be able to get the Ravens offense off the field and the Chargers offense won’t be able to get their offense down the field.

The Chargers vs. Ravens game will be at 10 a.m. on November 30 on CBS.