Los Angeles Chargers: Don’t expect to see much against Arizona

The Los Angeles Chargers host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday before the marquee matchup against the Steelers in Pittsburgh next week.

The Los Angeles Chargers are at home for the second straight week as the team will be hosting the Arizona Cardinals in a game that should be a relatively sound win for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Well, I thought that would be the case last week as well. While the Denver Broncos are a team to respect, the Chargers have so much talent that the matchup seemed very lopsided. The Chargers played terribly, beat themselves and allowed Denver to hang it in long enough to kick a last-second game-winning field goal.

Even though that does have pretty huge implications on the rest of the season and the Chargers’ potential seeding, it shouldn’t have a massive effect on this game. After all, this same Broncos team creamed the Cardinals earlier in the season and the Chargers should be able to do the same.

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Arizona is 2-8 on the season with two wins over the Jimmy Garoppolo-less San Francisco 49ers. Everything is pointing to an easy win for the Chargers.

You could argue that the Chargers are going to come out with vengeance against the Cardinals looking to punish the team solely for being the team following a disappointing loss to a division foe.

However, I think it will be the exact opposite for the Chargers, who have a pretty massive game against the Pittsburgh Steelers the next week that, if the Chargers win, has huge implications on how the team is viewed as a playoff team.

With that in mind, we are likely going to see a very similar showing from the Chargers as we saw from the Kansas City Chiefs when they played the Cardinals two weeks ago.

The Chiefs started the game hot and then ran through the motions the rest of the way only needing the natural talent edge to get the win. The Chiefs were awaiting the epic Monday Night Football matchup with the Rams and did not want to show too much of the playbook.

You are going to see that from the Chargers and that is a bit concerning. The Chargers are not as fundamentally sound of a team like the Chiefs and are more prone to make the little mistakes. Running through the motions could seriously hurt the team if they allow the Cardinals to hang in there too long.

Or this could be a good thing for the Chargers. Simply going through the motions and playing fundamental football might take away the boneheaded mistakes on offense and lead to methodical drives that swallow a lot of clock.

Either way, I would not expect the Los Angeles Chargers to put a massive number on the scoreboard against the Cardinals due to that dynamic. If you are a betting person, bet the under.