The 2-5 Chicago Bears head to California to take on the 2-6 San Diego Chargers in Week 9's edition of Monday Night Football. While this isn't a premier matchup of two playoff-bound teams, the Chargers are still favored by most analysts; even Vegas has them as 4.5-point favorites, an entire 1.5 points higher than the usual for a home team if the two squads were considered equals (which is a lot, actually). However, sometimes the majority isn't right, and here are five reasons why the Bears will beat the Chargers.
5. Bears' Style of Offense Gives Advantage
Something many haven't been talking about is how the Bears play offense, and why it's perfect for this matchup. Chicago has been trusting the run early and often in every game, and they do this specifically to keep their defense off of the field. Yes, they don't have Matt Forte for this game. But rookie Jeremy Langford and guys like Ka'Deem Carey and maybe even Antone Smith are going to have opportunities in this game.
The Chargers' defense is giving up 124.6 yards per game and a 5.0 YPC average -- dead last in the league on that second stat. Chicago will control the clock and use long drives to keep Philip Rivers off of the field.
4. Jay Cutler Has Been Playing Best Football of His Career
Meanwhile, when they haven't been running the ball, Cutler has been playing confidently and near mistake-free so far this year. Even though the Chargers are giving up only 238 yards passing per game and once had one of the top defensive pass units in the league earlier this season, they've been burned three-straight weeks by Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr and Joe Flacco. They also give up the fourth-most yards per pass attempt in the league at 8.2, and Cutler will certainly be able to beat them, especially after the running game gets going.
Not to mention, their defensive unit only has 15 sacks (22nd in the NFL) and four interceptions (22nd as well). The defense isn't that scary, and Cutler will pick them apart when given the opportunity.
3. Chargers' Lack of Commitment to Run Game
These next three points are all linked, but let's start with the lack of commitment to the run game for the Chargers. They have one of the worst yards-per-carry averages in the NFL at 3.6, and only rush for 86.4 YPG, 30th in the league. At only 24 attempts per game, because they're simply not good at it, you'll see in the next couple of points why their offense is so lopsided.
2. Myriad of Injuries On San Diego
Here's probably the main reason why their running game is so pathetic. All year long, they've had injuries along the offensive line. The entire left side of their line will be backups today, as King Dunlap and Orlando Franklin remain out with injuries. Those two weren't even that great of starters when they were healthy.
Don't forget, too, that Keenan Allen is now out for the season, which leads me to...
1. Chargers' No. 1 Passing Offense is Deceptive
My final point: this Chargers' passing offense, despite being ranked No. 1 in yards and seeing Rivers put up some huge numbers, is overrated. Since their run game has done nothing all year long due to injuries on the offensive line, Rivers is on pace for an astronomical amount of attempts. Yes, he's second in the league in yards (and will be first after tonight, since Drew Brees has already played his ninth game and has only 10 more), but it's because he's on pace for 696 attempts this year, and average of 43.5 per game. That's well over 100 more attempts than he's ever had in any one season.
Rivers is obviously playing at a high level, but his numbers are inflated by the extra attempts he gets each game. And now without his top target in Allen, who had already caught 67 passes -- 43 more than the next WR on the team -- for 725 yards and four TDs, he's going to have less consistent options to throw the ball to.
All of this coming together at this time will lead to the Bears improving to 3-5, and see the Chargers fall to a franchise-altering 2-7.
Prediction: Bears 31, Chargers 23
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
