Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers Pick

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Game Overview

Struggling AFC West rivals meet at Qualcomm Stadium for the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football tussle between the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs are big time underdogs on the NFL odds thanks to the fact that they just can’t get out of their own way offensively. QB Matt Cassel was benched before the team’s bye week two weeks ago, but he is back in the saddle now thanks to the injury suffered by QB Brady Quinn last week that will keep him out of the fold for this one. Under mostly Cassel’s direction, the Kansas City offense has scored just a total of one offensive touchdown in the last three games since playing against these very same Chargers back on September 30th. The defense is consistently put behind the 8-ball, and the unit has allowed 26, 38, 9 and 37 points over the course of its last three games. The only game in which this unit truly played well was against the Baltimore Ravens. Aside from that though, Head Coach Romeo Crennel has his work cut out for him if he is going to keep control of his team this year.

The Chargers are sliding, as they have lost three games in a row and have not beaten a team aside from these Chiefs since knocking off the Tennessee Titans 38-10 in Week 2. The offense absolutely went nowhere in treacherous conditions last week in a 7-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns at the Dawg Pound, and that now puts the team’s streak of time without a touchdown at 90:24 dating back to the first half of the game against the Denver Broncos. Since that point, the Bolts have been outdone 42-6. QB Philip Rivers is playing poorly, and part of that is because he just doesn’t have the same sort of weapons to work with this year that he has in years past. The defense has been a sieve as well, and the 20 points allowed to these Chiefs turn out to look quite bad when you consider what has happened with the men in red and gold since that point. San Diego was aided by Mother Nature last week, but it allowed 35, 31, 20, and 27 in its previous four games, numbers that Rivers and the offense just aren’t going to be able to keep up with consistently.

Prediction

This is a nice spot for the Chiefs to come up with a cover. The Chargers are the better of the two teams, and they are at home, but they aren’t five points better than the Chiefs are had this game been played on a truly neutral field. The short week might actually help Kansas City, just from the standpoint that it really couldn’t do anything to make matters worse. San Diego 24 – Kansas City 20