2. Week 14 vs. Miami Dolphins
On paper, the LA Chargers should be able to defeat the Miami Dolphins as it is hard to see how the Dolphins would be able to keep up with the Chargers scoring-wise. Tua Tagovailoa himself is a question mark for Miami and his success next season is far from a guarantee.
And while the Dolphins did add Tyreek Hill to the mix, the Chargers have historically done pretty well against Hill in the last few years. That was with Patrick Mahomes throwing him the football. He is not going to be better with Tua throwing him the football.
That being said, there absolutely is still trap game potential. The Chargers should beat the Dolphins but they are by no means a bad football team and they still do have a good defense. There is a world in which the defense plays a really good game and the Chargers make just a few key mistakes on offense and turn the ball over.
If Mike McDaniel can effectively grind out the clock and utilize the athletes in his offense in a way similar to the 49ers then they could grind the Chargers to a low-scoring, ugly game. That is not the kind of game the Chargers want to be in.
I still predicted LA to win this game but it is sandwiched between some tough games. The Chargers have some tough games before this game and some tough games after. The last thing they need to do is view this game as relief or a break from the grind, as that is when teams sneak up on you.