The LA Chargers schedule has been released for the 2021 season and we have already covered it in a multitude of ways here at Bolt Beat. We have predicted all 16 games and have even ranked every quarterback that the Chargers play, putting each quarterback in its own tier.
This is common practice in NFL media and this is why the league is so genius with its marketing. No other sport makes the schedule its owns event, but the NFL does. Slap it down on a Wednesday after the draft and get writers like myself talking about it for the rest of the week.
We know the tough games that the Chargers have in 2021 as well as the easy games. What we have not covered is something that every successful team dreads: the trap game.
Hopefully, the LA Chargers are good enough to qualify for trap games.
For those unaware, a trap game is a game against a lesser opponent that ends up being way closer (or even in a loss) than it should be, for various reasons. Oftentimes there is a big matchup for the more talented team the following week.
Whether it is because the team is overlooking the lesser opponent or is saving its really good play calls for the bigger matchup, we see good teams lose trap games that they shouldn’t lose time and time again.
The 2020 Chargers were a losing team so there weren’t really any trap games. A good recent example of a trap game was in 2019 when the Chargers throttled the Green Bay Packers. The Packers were coming off of a big win over the Chiefs and the Chargers came to play.
This year there are two obvious examples of potential trap games for the LA Chargers. Let’s give into them in chronological order.