The Los Angeles Chargers passed the halfway point, sitting at a 6-3 record with eight games left.
The Bolts have played well this season, led by the defense, which has allowed the fewest points in the NFL.
The Chargers, who are coming off a 27-17 win against Tennessee last week, now get set for the toughest part of the schedule.
Here is why this next part of the schedule will determine the Los Angeles Chargers’ playoff fate.
Los Angeles Chargers Easy Schedule Is No More
Over the first nine games, the Chargers strength of schedule was .459, which marked the second easiest among the seven AFC teams inside the playoff picture entering Week 9 with the only other being Buffalo at .417 strength of schedule.
To put that into perspective, five of the nine Chargers’ opponents have three or fewer wins right now in Las Vegas, Carolina, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Tennessee.
With the way the Chargers have played, especially over the last three games, those were three games they needed to win against the Saints, Browns, and Titans.
Those three wins to vault them from 3-3 to 6-3 has raised the Bolts’ playoff chances to 87%, the sixth-best mark in the AFC.
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Bolts Strength Of Schedule Drastically Heightens
Now the schedule difficulty rises.
Over the next four games, here are the Los Angeles Chargers next four games and their records:
- Nov. 17: Home vs. Cincinnati (4-6)
- Nov. 25: Home vs. Baltimore (7-3)
- Dec. 1: @ Atlanta (6-4)
- Dec. 8: @ Kansas City (9-0)
That is a .667 strength of schedule over the next month.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh said the team has to focus on initially what is next and not what is too far away.
“I look at it from all different vantage points,” Harbaugh said Wednesday in his mid-week press conference. “But the main way we look at it is one week. (The NFL) is a one-week league and all focus is on the Bengals.”
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Although the Bengals have a losing record, five of their six losses have come in one-possession fashion. That includes last week when they lost by one to Baltimore on Thursday Night Football on a potential two-point conversion attempt to take the lead with about 30 seconds in the fourth quarter.
In addition, all four teams are either in the hunt or inside their respective conference playoff picture as Kansas City and Atlanta each lead their respective division.
The Ravens are one-half game back of the first-place Steelers in the AFC North while the Bengals are three games back of the Ravens. Last year, all four AFC North teams won at least nine games in a competitive division.
As a result, these next four games will be critical in determining how far potentially this team goes if it reaches the playoffs for the first time in two seasons and for just the second time since 2018 when the Chargers recorded their last postseason win in Baltimore during the Wild Card round.
All four of the Chargers’ next opponents have the opportunity to put points up quickly, which means that it will be a big test and a barometer to measure how Los Angeles can overcome it.
The Bengals have quarterback Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, who caught 11 passes from Burrow for 264 yards and three touchdowns last week.
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The Ravens have a two-headed offensive threat in quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry.
The Falcons have quarterback Kirk Cousins, running back Bijan Robinson as well as former star wide receiver at USC, Drake London, in addition to Darnell Mooney.
The Los Angeles Chargers always know their AFC West foes, the Kansas City Chiefs, who defeated the Chargers 17-10 earlier in the season at SoFi Stadium. Led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, one thing that will be different from their matchup in late September is the addition of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who was acquired before the trade deadline.
After this four-game stretch, the schedule does lighten up a bit heading into the final four games with two home games against Tampa Bay and Denver before finishing the season on the road in an easier fashion at New England and in Las Vegas.