Recreation Overview
Week 16 opens with a battle between AFC West rivals within the present sixth-seed Denver Broncos and the seventh-seed Los Angeles Chargers.
Though Los Angeles maintains a robust 9-4-1 report in opposition to the unfold, final week’s blowout loss marked the staff’s third straight-up loss up to now 4 weeks to go together with a pair of failed covers. Nevertheless, the Chargers have excelled when laying factors this 12 months, sustaining a 77.8% cowl fee as the favourite — second solely to the Broncos.
Points have arisen for the Chargers in latest weeks, stemming from a drastic fall-off in offensive productiveness. Since Week 12, Los Angeles ranks simply twenty fifth in EPA per play — a stark distinction to their top-11 mark over the 4 weeks prior. That drop might be attributed to the offense’s lack of constant playmaking capacity, with the unit having notched only a 15.4% landing drive fee (twenty seventh) and recording a profitable play on simply 31.8% of snaps (twenty eighth) over that span.
That might spell bother with the stalwart Broncos protection coming to city. Denver’s unit has produced the league’s greatest EPA per play allowed this season, largely due to their opportunistic nature. The Broncos have produced probably the most factors within the NFL by a protection (32), highlighted by three defensive touchdowns of their previous two video games.
A powerful protection paired with a promising younger quarterback in Bo Nix has led this staff to the NFL’s greatest report in opposition to the unfold (11-3), with their final failed cowl coming again in Week 9. Taking part in within the skinny air in Denver isn’t the one place this staff is aware of methods to cowl, as they maintain a 6-1 against-the-spread report on the street this season.
Nevertheless, the Broncos nonetheless have one thing to show after this similar Chargers staff bested them again in Week 6 — a recreation through which Los Angeles lined as a 3-point favourite in Denver. With postseason positioning on the road, count on each groups to empty the tank on this divisional matchup.
RB Kimani Vidal, Los Angeles Chargers: Underneath 27.5 dashing yards (-116) — 5.4% PFF Edge
After J.Ok. Dobbins landed on injured reserve following Week 12, a younger, gifted again ready within the wings was anticipated to take over the Chargers’ backfield. Nevertheless, Vidal’s contributions have been restricted regardless of his expanded function. Over the previous three video games, the first-year again has amassed simply 15 carries whereas averaging 4.2 yards per tote, incomes only a 56.7 PFF dashing grade over the span. The amount simply isn’t there to facilitate his dashing yardage strains, leading to him exceeding his dashing line simply as soon as this season.
Denver’s protection is adept at holding down backs, having surrendered the second-lowest EPA per rush this season. The Broncos have allowed the third-lowest yards per carry allowed (3.9) and the sixth-lowest explosive run play share (11.0%), too.
