The San Diego Chargers come in to this playoff contest riding an 11-game winning streak, but they face a New York Jets team that could be a match-up nightmare.
The Chargers (-310) are 7-point NFL playoff odds favorites over the Jets (+250) and the over/under is 42.
The Chargers may be heavy NFL betting favorites, but the Jets match up well against the Chargers and could very realistically straight-up win this one.
The Jets have the number one defense in the NFL. They have the best scoring defense at 14.8 points per game and the best total defense giving up 252.3 yards per game.
Those numbers alone should scare the Chargers a little, but it gets worse. The Jets have been playing their best defense down the stretch. They haven’t given up more than 15 points since a bad Week 11 loss to New England.
The Jets had a stretch in the middle of the season where they consistently gave up 24 to 31 points (except for two games against Oakland and Buffalo, but they don’t count). If it weren’t for their mid-season defensive struggles, they’d probably be giving up an average of 10 points per game.
The Jets have a mediocre offense led by a young quarterback who is still learning the game, but the match-up looks even worse for the Chargers when the Jets have the ball.
New York is averaging 172.3 rushing yards per game and we all know they’re just going to keep pounding away on the run, eating up the clock and making the job of the defense a lot easier.
The Chargers run defense is shaky to begin with giving up 117.6 yards per game. They are going to need some career performances from the defense to make sure their offense has the ball enough to win.
I just don’t see it happening. It’s like a late Christmas gift from the NFL odds-makers. The Jets at +7 might be a realistic number for the over/under.
