San Diego Chargers have something to prove against the Houston Texans
This Sunday, 7 November, the San Diego Chargers will be looking to prove that their win last Sunday against the Tennessee Titans was no fluke and that they've finally got their season back on track. They take on the Houston Texans who are, once again, looking
to prove that they are play-off contenders in a pivotal AFC matchup.
Previous meetings and recent games
It seemed like not too long ago that the Chargers would walk away with the AFC West Division title virtually by default, but they've struggled so far this season. Despite having a plus-36 point differential and boasting the league's best overall offence
and best overall defence, the Chargers have a 3-5 record and sit in third place in their division having a lot of ground to make up if they hope to qualify for the play-offs. With their 33-25 win over the Titans last week they took a huge step forward toward
proving their record is not indicative of the type of football their capable of playing.
The Houston Texans seem to make a bid for a play-off berth in the first half of every season, but falter towards the end always seeming to come up just short. It doesn't help that they play in one of the NFL's most competitive divisions, the AFC South. They
suffered a tough 30-17 loss to one of their bitter divisional rivals, the Indianapolis Colts, last week.
The last time these two teams met was back in 2007 with the Chargers winning by a score of 35-10. In fact, the Chargers have won all three previous meetings between these two teams since 2001 with the Chargers outscoring the Texans 86-33 along the way.
How they match up
The San Diego Chargers have Philip Rivers at quarterback and the 28-year-old out of North Carolina State is putting up the kind of numbers that could have him surpass Dan Marino's single-season record for passing yards which has stood since 1984. Rivers
could be without one of his favorite targets for the game, tight end Antonio Gates, who is suffering from a foot injury. If Gates doesn't play it would be a huge setback for the Chargers as he leads the NFL with nine touchdown catches.
For Houston, quarterback Matt Schaub isn't exactly putting up Rivers-like numbers, but he is rated in the NFL's top 10 in passing yards and completion percentage. He's also got the NFL's second leading rusher, Arian Foster, to hand the ball off to which
gives the Texans a slight edge along the ground.
If the Chargers offence wasn't frightening enough, the Chargers are also second in the NFL in sacks, having got to opposing quarterbacks 25 times this season, and have the NFL's best pass defence and second best run defence. Shaun Phillips and Kevin Burnett
have been leading the way with 7.0 and 5.0 sacks respectively.
What to expect
If statistics determined the outcome of every football game then the NFL would probably hand the Vince Lombardi trophy to the Chargers today. There is, however, much more that goes on on any given Sunday that the numbers do not reveal. The Chargers have
been in 'it's now or never'-mode for the past two weeks and with the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders making serious cases for the AFC West title this season, every game for the Chargers has significance.
At the same time, the Texans will be desperate not to let their play-off hopes evaporate with a second-straight loss.
Houston have home field and a balanced system. The Chargers have great numbers, but are flashy and unpredictable. With equal motivation, this game is a toss up.
Take the Texans in a nail-biter 31-30.
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