Another week, another game of losers that somebody has to win, right? Right?? The Los Angeles Chargers (0-4) leave their near-empty soccer stadium in L.A. to travel eastward to face off against the New York Giants (0-4). We’re calling this the Battle of the Braintrust as Anthony Lynn pulls out the chessboard against Ben McAdoo.
It’s almost enough to make you want the game to end in a tie. If you want to watch this one, tune in to your local CBS station at 1 p.m., and then suffer.
The Game: Los Angeles Chargers at New York Giants (-3)
O/U: 44.5
The History
The Chargers and Giants have only played 11 times since 1971 with Los Angeles holding a 6-5 advantage in the series.
They last played on December 8, 2013 with the Chargers winning 37-14.
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS (0-4)
The losses are close, but they just keep falling for the Chargers. Last week it was the visiting Philadelphia Eagles who dealt the latest defeat with a late touchdown in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal against a frustrated Philip Rivers and the Chargers.
My favorite thing I saw this week was on Inside the NFL when Anthony Lynn, mic’d up for some reason, told his losing team that he didn’t care about winning or losing. He just wanted them to have fun. This is the kind of thing you tell a little league team in order to get them to take the bats off their shoulders and actually put the ball in play. You don’t say that to grown men making millions of bucks a year. This isn’t 12 year old girls playing field hockey for God’s sake.
Needless to say, the Chargers had tons of fun and lost again. Rivers got so pissed at the playcalling that he was shown taking his helmet of and yelling into its microphone on the sideline. He’ll have more to yell about after this game. If he’s still on this team next season, I’ll be surprised.
The running game that Lynn is so enamored with produced a total of 58 yards last week. They did catch the Eagles with a 35 yard touchdown run from Austin Ekeler, but let’s not all start massaging each other’s inner thighs just yet.
Mike Williams remains out with his back injury. Running back Brandon Oliver will also miss the game with a hamstring.
NEW YORK GIANTS (0-4)
The Giants, too, found themselves on the wrong end of a fourth quarter loss. For them, it was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who drove down in the final seconds and hit a field goal for a 25-23 win, something they couldn’t do in three tries Thursday night. That had to sting.
Eli Manning continues to will this team into the end zone. Against the Bucs, with no help from the running game at all, Manning completed 30 of 49 passing for 288 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s been able to get Brandon Marshall more involved in the offense over the last two weeks too. Marshall caught six passes for 46 yards last Sunday.
The defense that carried New York to the playoffs hasn’t shown up this season. Over the last three weeks they’ve surrendered 24, 27 and 25 points. That’s OK if your offense is a prolific scoring group like the Los Angeles Rams. When you’re averaging 15.5 points a game on offense, it’s not good enough. Last week New York delivered no consistent pressure against Jameis Winston and recorded exactly one sack, which Jason Pierre-Paul and Dominic Rodgers-Cromartie had to share. They did hold the Bucs to 3-of-13 on third downs and that’s a solid stat to build on.
The running game won’t be helped with Paul Perkins being held out again with his rib injury. Center Weston Richburg will also miss Sunday’s game in the concussion protocol.
The Pick
It’s a long trip for a badly coached team and I think that will make all the difference for Los Angeles. Neither of these teams will go winless on the season, but somebody’s coming out of this game 0-5. I think it’s the west coasters. Giants 27, Chargers 24
This week
Straight up: 1-0
Against the spread: 1-0
Last week
Straight up: 9-7
Against the spread: 10-6
Season
Straight up: 37-26
Against the spread: 32-31
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