Los Angeles Chargers: Staff predictions for Cardinals-Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers host the Arizona Cardinals after a disappointing loss at home to the Denver Broncos last week.

The Los Angeles Chargers lost an extremely disappointing game against the Denver Broncos last week. This was a division game that the Los Angeles Chargers should have won and would have set the team up nicely with the Kansas City Chiefs impending loss to the Denver Broncos.

Instead of walking away with the victory, the team played terribly and allowed the Broncos to stay in the game long enough to nail a last-second field goal to walk away with a one-point victory.

The Broncos did not beat the Chargers and instead, the Chargers beat themselves.

While this is nothing to panic about, this does make the road to the playoffs a tad harder. A win would have already given the Chargers eight wins. With the Arizona Cardinals slated for the next win, the Chargers could have had nine wins after 11 games.

Ten wins are enough to make the playoffs, meaning even if the Chargers played horribly the team still only needed to win one of its last five games to make the playoffs.

If the Chargers are a true playoff team, though, they are going to win these final games. With a big game next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, here is how we think the Cardinals-Chargers game will go this week.

Jamaal Artis (13-3): 31-10, Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers blew a home game and their six-game winning streak, making this weekends game against the Arizona Cardinals a must win.

Luckily for the Chargers, the Cardinals are one of the worst teams in the NFL starting a rookie at QB. Chargers win solidifying their Wild Card chances.

Lamarr Fields (12-6): 31-13, Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers will rebound after a disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos last Sunday. Look for the Chargers to use Melvin Gordon a lot in this game. I expect Gordon to run for about 150 yards with two touchdowns. Chargers will force Josh Rosen to beat them and Rosen will throw at least two interceptions.

Redan Lopez (12-4): 31-21, Los Angeles Chargers

Quarterback Philip Rivers did not have a great game against the Broncos last week. I fully expect a nice bounce back from him.

The Cardinals will make this competitive, but the experience and poise of the Chargers will prevail. Josh Rosen is a rookie and his rookie-like play will be no different than what we have seen all season.

Even though Melvin Gordon may not play, I think the Chargers have the weapons to put enough points on the board.

Jason Reed (16-3): 23-6, Los Angeles Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers have not looked great the last few weeks despite holding a 7-3 record. The Chargers didn’t look great against the Titans nor Seahawks but walked away with last-second victories.

The team did what it had to do to beat the Oakland Raiders and were on the losing end of a last-second game against the Denver Broncos. As a fan, I am not overly impressed with the efforts.

This is a game that the Chargers cannot lose and a game that they will jump out to early and coast the rest of the way. It won’t be pretty but an early lead will lead to the Chargers eating the clock away and walking away with a routine 17-point victory.

That moves the Chargers to 8-3 as the team enters the final five games of the season. Hopefully, the team does not show too much to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the win.