Last Updated on December 9, 2010 4:16 am by Anthony Rome
Chiefs vs. Chargers Preview
SAN DIEGO, CA (AP) – The San Diego Chargers have won four straight AFC West titles, the longest active streak of division crowns in the NFL.
They’re going to have little chance of extending that run, however, if they don’t avenge a Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
According to latest NFL odds, oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com have made the Chargers 6.5-point spread favorites for Sunday’s game against Chiefs. Current NFL Public Betting Information shows that 53% of more than 6,880 bets for this game have been placed on the Chiefs +6.5.
The Chiefs, who could be without quarterback Matt Cassel, look to move closer to their first division title in seven years and try to put a major dent in the Chargers’ playoff hopes Sunday in San Diego.
With a 10-6 win over Denver last week and the Chargers’ 28-13 home loss to Oakland, the Chiefs (8-4) opened up a two-game lead over San Diego (6-6), which saw its streak of 18 straight December victories come to an end.
“Obviously, that helps us, but by no means does it take next week’s game off for us,” Kansas City linebacker Andy Studebaker said. “It doesn’t mean that next week’s game is any less important. In fact, it becomes more important for us.”
The Chiefs, who opened the season with a 21-14 victory over the Chargers on a rainy Monday night, would gain significant tiebreakers with another win and would rather not let San Diego creep back into the playoff picture.
“Each week the games get bigger and they get more important,” Kansas City coach Todd Haley said. “That is the way it is when you are having some success.”
Although their playoff hopes are fading, the Chargers faced a similar deficit in the division race late in 2008. San Diego won its final four games to take the West at 8-8 while benefiting from Denver’s collapse.
“In a lot of ways it is in our hands,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “Not completely, but what we can control is winning this week and winning the games we get to play. Again, we’ve needed help before in previous years, and a lot more than we need now, and it’s worked out.
“If we look up Jan. 2 and it’s not enough, it’s not enough. But we’ve got to make sure that on Jan. 2, we’ve done all we can do, and it starts this week by winning against Kansas City.”
The Chargers have won five of six at home over the Chiefs and haven’t been swept in the season series since 2003, but Kansas City is no longer a pushover.
Cassel has blossomed into one of the league’s most consistent quarterbacks for Kansas City, which is poised to win its first division title since 2003. He has thrown for 2,009 yards with 19 touchdowns and one interception in the last eight games.
However, he underwent an appendectomy Wednesday and his availability for this game is uncertain.
Brodie Croyle, who is 0-9 as a starter and has not played all year, took most of the snaps in practice Wednesday.
If Cassel is unavailable, the Chiefs, winners of three in a row, will likely lean even more on a ground game that averages an NFL-best 175.2 yards.
Jamaal Charles is third in the league with 1,137 rushing yards and averages a league-best 6.2 per carry. Only Jim Brown in 1963 rushed for more than 1,100 yards and averaged better than 6.2 yards per carry in a season.
Charles ran for 92 yards and a touchdown on just 11 carries in Week 1, and will be facing a Chargers defense that was shredded for 251 rushing yards by Oakland last weekend.
San Diego’s offense also struggled against the Raiders, gaining a season-low 286 yards. Rivers, second in the league with 3,642 passing yards, threw for 280 with a touchdown and interception, but the ground game never got going.
The Chargers had averaged 127.3 rushing yards in winning their previous four contests but were limited to 21 against the Raiders, tied for seventh-lowest in team history.
“It’s obviously very disappointing we weren’t able to play at the level we’ve been playing over the last month,” coach Norv Turner said.
Turner expects rookie running back Ryan Mathews to play against the Chiefs after sitting out last week despite being active. Mathews, who missed the previous two games due to a high ankle sprain, ran for 78 yards on 20 carries in the opener.
Rivers passed for 298 yards with two touchdowns in that game. He has averaged 309.0 yards and thrown 11 TDs and three interceptions in five games against Kansas City since 2008.
“We are still alive,” Rivers said. “Again, is it best-case scenario? No, but we’ve put ourselves in that by this game (Sunday) and games in September and October to where you don’t have any wiggle room.”
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