Predicting Los Angeles Chargers’ schedule Weeks 1-4
By Travis Wakeman
Week 4 vs. San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a team on the rise and if you read around, you’ll find some people making some crazy predictions about this team, some even saying the Niners will win the Super Bowl.
For me, that’s heaping a bit too much praise on the young quatrterback Jimmy Garoppolo and second-year coach Kyle Shanahan.
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They’ll come into the StubHub Center in Week 4 and likely feel like the home team as Niners fans won’t have far to travel to invade Chargers territory. After all, Chiefs fans outnumbered Chargers fans there last year.
This will be a good test for the Chargers’ defense but whether or not the Chargers can win this game depends on their offense against the San Francisco defense. The Niners have players such as DeForest Buckner, Reuben Foster ad Richard Sherman ready to wreak havoc on opposing offenses, so they won’t be easy to score on.
I see this as a game in which the Chargers need to establish the run early and open some running lanes for Melvin Gordon in order to sustain drives and more or less grind out a victory. But that won’t come easy and I can see this one coming down to the final possession.
This time, the Chargers make the last-second field goal to get a victory, though I see this game as a coin flip right now.
Prediction: Chargers 17, 49ers 16
Record through first four games of season: 3-1
A good start to the year for the Chargers. Next time, I will look at Weeks 5-8 as the Chargers face ce the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans before going into their bye week.