Dawgs By Nature
Browns vs Chargers could be very competitive but Los Angeles’ defense might be propped up by poor QBs
When the Cleveland Browns face off with the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 9, all eyes will be on the home team’s offense with QB Jameis Winston and RB Nick Chubb. On the other side of the ball is one of the top-ranked defenses in the NFL in a variety of ways. As shared in Curtiss Brown’s “3 keys to victory”, the Chargers have some high rankings in important areas:
On top of that, Los Angeles is giving up the fewest points per game in the entire NFL and is ranked eighth in defensive DVOA (a catch-all data point).
DC Jesse Minter on the defense’s simple goal:
It is possible, however, that Los Angeles’ rankings are a little bit of fool’s gold when you look at the quarterbacks that they have faced:
While the Browns have seen their fair share of struggles at the quarterback position, only Mahomes and Murray would be upgrades to Winston.
How do you get really high rankings? Weeks like this:
To be fair, the Chargers gave up just 17 points to Mahomes and Murray-led offenses but the rest of their schedule calls into question how good the defense really is. There are some quality veterans like Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack and Derwin James on the depth chart but depth and injuries could be an issue against Cleveland this week.
Week 9 on the road and going cross country will give Los Angeles’ top-ranked defense a challenge based on how Winston played in Week 8.
Does the list of QBs that the Chargers have faced impact how you think about their defense coming into Week 9?
