2009 San Diego Chargers NFL Football Predictions

2009 San Diego Chargers Predictions
Preview courtesy of Ted Sevransky, An award-winning professional football handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are interested in football betting this season, be sure to buy Ted Sevransky’s football picks at Touthouse.com

Overview:
The Chargers have been very good in recent years. They’ve won three consecutive AFC West titles, without a losing season since 2003. Over the last five years, San Diego has gone 54-26 in the regular season, while notching four playoff berths. In each of the last two seasons, Norv Turner has guided the Chargers to at least one postseason victory, including a trip to the AFC Championship Game in 2007.

Last year, injuries, bad luck late in games and a general sense of sluggishness left the Chargers in a huge hole with a 4-8 record entering December. But San Diego rallied to win their final four regular season games to make the playoffs yet again. They were home underdogs against the Colts in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, but knocked off Indy in the postseason for the second consecutive season. Still, they came up short of the only goal this team really has right now – it’s Super Bowl or bust for San Diego in 2009.

Offense:
Quarterback Philip Rivers had the best QB rating in the NFL last year (105.5) and set a Chargers franchise record with 34 touchdown passes. Coming off ACL surgery, Rivers stayed injury free in ’08 and carried the offense during a season that LaDanian Tomlinson and the running game underperformed. A leader in the locker room as well as on the field, the 27 year old is just entering his prime and deserves to be mentioned among the league’s elite signal callers. Unlike Tom Brady, Peyton and Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, however, Rivers is still looking for a Super Bowl ring.

San Diego is loaded with skill position talent. All reports out of training camp indicate that Tomlinson is as healthy as he’s been in years. His backup, Darren Sproles, averaged 5.4 yards per carry last year and caught five touchdown passes out of the backfield. Vincent Jackson, Chris Chambers, Malcolm Floyd, Buster Davis and Antonio Gates make up one of the NFL’s better receiving corps. San Diego returns four of five starters on the offensive line, including perennial pro bowl candidates tackle Marcus McNeil, guard Kris Dielman and center Nick Hardwick. The Chargers ranked second in the NFL in points scored last year, and should remain near the top of the league in offensive production again in 2009.

Defense:
The Chargers defense declined markedly in 2008, although the unit improved somewhat late in the season after Ted Cottrell was fired and Ron Rivera assumed the defensive coordinator duties. Still, the defense finished 31st in the NFL against the pass; 25th overall in yardage allowed. Rivera has now had a full offseason to implement his scheme, a 3-4 defense that relies heavily on blitzing linebackers to create pressure on opposing quarterbacks. With a healthy Shawne Merriman returning (double digit sacks in each of his first three years in the league), expect those linebacker blitzes to be considerably more effective this year than they were a season ago.

Nose tackle Jamal Williams is a prototypical run stuffer in a 3-4 defense, commanding double teams on nearly every play. Veteran Shaun Phillips, first round draft choice Larry English and free agent acquisition Kevin Burnett (Dallas) give the Chargers a plethora of pass rushing outside linebackers. The secondary is loaded with talent as well, including three former first rounders and a second rounder. But the secondary fell apart last year when the pass rush declined. Antonio Cromartie, in particular, will have to step up following a very disappointing campaign.

Schedule:
The AFC West is one of the weakest divisions in football, and the Chargers have gone 5-1 SU against their divisional rivals in each of the last three years. Given the down state of the division again this year, we can safely project another 5-1 mark in 2009. The rest of the slate isn’t easy, but it’s a long way from brutal. It’s surely worth noting that San Diego doesn’t play a single early start game in the Eastern Time zone this year. Based on this year’s season Over/Under win totals, San Diego faces the second easiest schedule in the entire league, just one more reason why San Diego fans are already jonesing about a trip to Miami in February.