Los Angeles Chargers: Playoffs out of reach with a loss to the Steelers

The Los Angeles Chargers host the Pittsburgh Steelers in a Sunday Night Football rematch from last season that could decide the fate of the Chargers’ season.

The Los Angeles Chargers had one of the best feel-good wins in recent team history last season over the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Sunday Night Football for the first time since 2014, the Chargers put together a great come-from-behind win on the road over the Steelers.

The Chargers trailed 23-7 at halftime and rallied, scoring a touchdown on their first drive of the second half and then scored on a punt return to tie the game. After going up 30-23, the Chargers allowed the Steelers to tie before Michael Badgley got bailed out by two Steelers’ penalties to make his third game-winning field goal attempt.

Now in Week 6 the Chargers host the Steelers on Sunday Night Football, although it is going to look much more like a Steelers game than a Chargers game. Pittsburgh fans always had a good showing in San Diego, it will be even worse in LA.

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Just like last year’s game in Pittsburgh, this game is huge for the Chargers. The Chargers are coming off of an ugly loss to the Denver Broncos and are 2-3 on the season.

The Steelers are less of a challenge than we thought they would be in the beginning of the season without Ben Roethlisberger and the team should be on their third-string quarterback after the nasty hit and concussion that Mason Rudolph suffered on Sunday.

In fact, it would be kind of sickening to see Rudolph out there on Sunday. I don’t care how good he feels, you have to let a guy rest at least one week after a hit like that. The Steelers are 1-4. His life and well-being is more important.

It does help the Los Angeles Chargers if Rudolph does not play but that is not what it is about at all. This is about a young man’s health.

Regardless who is under center, the Chargers need to put their foot on the gas and overwhelm the Steelers early and often in order to win this game. Los Angeles needs to play like this is a playoff game against a playoff team and not even leave it up for question late in the fourth quarter.

The Los Angeles Chargers have to win this game. If they don’t the playoffs will become out of reach.

The Chargers are known for starting slow and a 2-4 start might not seem like a big challenge for a team that always overcomes adversity. However, the Chargers still have two games against the Kansas City Chiefs, a game against the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.

If the Chargers cannot beat the Steelers on a third-string quarterback why should we expect them to win even half of those games? Even if they win three of the five, that still puts them at six losses.

And then you also have games against the Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, two against the Raiders and one against the Broncos. The team would have to win every single one of those games to overcome a 2-4 start, which might not be possible.

Yes, the team has been devastatingly injured and that is not necessarily their fault. But it is still the reality of the situation. If this is a playoff team then they should be able to regroup and beat a team that is also battling an injury bug.

Plus, it could have an impact on playoff seeding. The Chargers already have losses to the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos. While the Broncos are probably not a wild card team, the Texans very well could be and they now have the tiebreaker.

The Steelers could theoretically make a push and at least be in the running. Losing this game gives the Chargers yet another disadvantage.

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The Los Angeles Chargers already have a pretty big hill to climb if they want to be a playoff team this season. A loss to the Steelers, even once they get healthier, will knock the team out of playoff contention.

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