The LA Chargers are on the road in Week 16 as they take on the lowly Houston Texans, who are actually coming off of a win as they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 15. The Chargers are coming off of a Thursday Night Football loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and are dealing with some roster losses as well.
The COVID outbreak that has hit various teams in the NFL has hit the Chargers, as a total of nine players have now hit the COVID-19 list on the Bolts. Joey Bosa has already been ruled out of the game as an unvaccinated positive test and other significant names, such as Corey Linsley and Austin Ekeler, could miss the game. However, the Chargers may have dodged a bullet with the COVID-19 list as this comes after looser protocols have been put into place by the NFL, so there is optimism.
However, we still have to keep our fingers crossed as fans. Back-up quarterback Chase Daniel has been put on the COVID-19 list. While we know that Justin Herbert is vaccinated, the worst thing that could happen is him missing what should be an easy win against the Texans. Every win matters at this point in the season, so we just have to cross our fingers.
All of this makes it hard to make a betting prediction. However, we are making ours under the impression that Herbert will play as will at least one of Austin Ekeler or Corey Linsley.
Chargers vs Texans odds, spread, over/under for Week 16 NFL game:
Despite all of the news around COVID-19, the Chargers still enter this game as big road favorites as they are 9.5-point favorites over the Texans. This makes the Chargers a whopping -430 moneyline favorite while the Texans are a +340 moneyline underdog. The over/under for the game has been placed at 45.5 points.
Thus far this season the Chargers are 7-7 against the spread while the Texans are 6-8 against the spread.
Chargers vs Texans prediction for Week 16 NFL game:
The Texans are getting a lot of points in this game and there is potential concern around the positive COVID-19 cases but at the end of the day I have to go with the Bolts in this one. I have not been shy in the past to pick against the Chargers, especially if I think a team is going to cover but lose against the Bolts.
This is not one of those instances as the Texans are still one of the three worst teams in the entire league, they just so happened to play one of the worst teams in the NFL last week. If the Texans would not have played the Jaguars last season and the Chargers won the toss in overtime and beat the Chiefs they then would probably be 13.5-point favorites in this game. As far as I am concerned, last week's results skewed this line by four points.
We just need the Chargers to win by double-digits and they absolutely should against a team like the Texans. We saw how easily the Bolts beat the New York Giants in Week 14 and this game should be very similar, if not worse for the Texans. The only worry is a potential backdoor cover, which almost happened against the Giants. However, with the line in the single-digits, I am not too worried about that.
I am going with Chargers -9.5 and over 45.5 points with a final score prediction of Chargers 34, Texans 20.