After blasting the Oakland Raiders on New Year’s Eve to close the 2017 season, the Los Angeles Chargers were headed to the postseason. All that was needed was for the Jacksonville Jaguars to defeat the Tennessee Titans, something that was definitely going to happen, right?
But through three quarters, all the Jaguars had managed to score was a measly field goal and the Titans went on to a 15-10 victory, thus eliminating the red-hot Bolts from the playoffs.
Of course, the Chargers don’t want to leave their fate in the hands of others this year and know that a deep playoff run will be dependent on taking care of business on their end. An 0-4 start to 2017 doomed any chances the team had, and that obviously won’t be acceptable this year, either.
I am going to begin to take a look at the team’s schedule in pieces, predicting four weeks at a time before coming to an overall projection on how the team’s season will go.
In the first four weeks of the season, the Chargers are scheduled to face the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. That’s not exactly an easy schedule. Three of those teams qualified for the postseason last year and the other (the 49ers), is a trendy pick to surprise this year and make some noise.
Certainly, the team won’t lose all four of these games and begin the campaign the way it did last year, right? Let’s take a look at the when, where, why and how of each of the Chargers’ first four games of the season.