Los Angeles Chargers vs. Tennessee Titans Preview & Prediction | PFF

Chargers and the Titans. The Los Angeles Chargers are traveling to Tennessee to take on the Titans who get a home game here. You want to talk about the Titans or you want to talk about the Chargers side of things? Well, especially in a matchup like this where you’ve got a very vulnerable Titans offensive line. The Chargers are sure glad to have Khalil Mack back. He’s been back for two games now from injury. I mean, when you talk about you talk about an ageless guy, I I mean, just ridiculous how good he still is. And the impact that a guy like that has on the rest of the front seven. I talk about this all the time with some of those great players, the Micah Parsons and Miles Garretts and guys like that that draw attention away from everybody else. When you look at the Chargers as a team this season, when Khalil Mack is on the field, they have a 72.1 pass rush grade and getting nearly a 48% pressure rate. Without him on the field, whether that’s due to injury or just out of the rotation in a given game, only 59.7 and a 31.6% pressure rate. the difference in Khalil Mack just being out there still as their best pass rusher and the impact that has on getting Tuli Tulie Palotu one-on-one matchups, the interior pass rushers one-on-one matchups, Taurt Tart and those guys, it’s so big to have Khalil Mack back healthy. And in this game where they could have a dominant performance against a struggling Titans offensive line, it’s really important for him to for him to be in there and avoid an upset in this game. On the Chargers offensive side of things, we know how great Justin Herbert has been playing. We broke that down uh in depth on Monday’s show. Specifically, I think something that has really just taken their offense to the next level is Arande Gazden uh emerging as that receiving tight end there for him. And I think that he’s ripe to have another pretty big game here in this one. When you look at the Titans covering tight ends this season, they are 17th in team coverage grade and they are 20th in passing yards or receiving yards, however you want to look at it, allowed to the tight end position. And so Gazden has I don’t want to say that he has looked uncoverable because I think that that’s that’s not exactly the right conclusion to come to when you watch how he is playing and he’s playing well. He’s in a situation where it’s not like he’s creating a ton of separation on all of these routes and on all of his catches. A couple of his catches, they’re really well-designed plays. He’s finding the soft spots in the zone or he’s just getting open and it’s a blown coverage and Justin Herbert’s been able to find him. But there have been other plays where he’s covered pretty tightly and he’s still able to come down with it as a really good contested catcher like what he was when he was at Syracuse. So this is another week where if you’re expecting the Gassin hype train to slow down. I I I don’t think it’s going to happen this week. And we’ve seen over the last couple of uh games here for the Chargers when he is clicking on all cylinders. really just takes this offense to another level, having another reliable player for Justin Herbert to attack with in the passing game. And so, as you know, Omar and Hampton’s been hurt. Uh they haven’t been able to lead on him in the run game. They’ve gotten some good things from Kamani Vidal, but when the run game isn’t there for them, Justin Herbert picks you up with his arm. And certainly having a uh multitude and a diversity of of pass catchers to be able to go to has been great. I don’t think that changes this week. I think the Chargers win big and that honestly might be less of a Chargers thing and more of a Titans thing. I just I don’t really know what the T Tennessee Titans do right now to give you faith in them winning a football game. Chargers are favored by eight and a half here on the road. I think they win bigger than this. I I think the Chargers win 28 to 14. Yeah. No, this is a tough one, especially when you talk about Gats and so many threats in the slot when you talk about Gadston and Lad Mani and Keenan Allen, right? All those guys can operate on the inside. The Titans just traded their starting nickel, Roger McCreer, to the other side of LA and the Rams. So, I I really have no idea who’s going to be the nickel and defending in the slot. You know, is it going to be just an extra safety like a Kevin Winston Jr.? Do they have somebody else? They also traded Jarvis Brownley to the Jets a few weeks ago. So, they’re really tearing apart this secondary. You know, Gadston or Maki or Allen. They’re pretty good bets. one of them is a good bet regardless of which one day is to have a good day because we have no idea who’s playing in the slot for Tennessee either this week. So, um that that’s going to be a really good matchup I think for the Chargers. I I’m with you. I’ve got the Chargers winning pretty big here. I’ve got it 26-13 just just to kind of throw an oddball score out there. But, you know, Justin Herbert’s been playing MVP caliber football, carrying this team through their offensive line issues. Joe Alt getting healthier each week is going to help. But I just think there’s too many bad matchups all across the board for this Titans team to win this game. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk about some uh some moves that this regime has made that absolutely signal that they do not like what anybody did. Mike Boroni, the general manager of the Titans, very clearly basically hates everything that Ran Carson and John Robinson did. I mean, this was not a team that could just be trading corners. and they have traded now two of them in Roger McCreary and Jarvis Brownley Jr. I mean legerious has been a bad signing for them. He’s been hurt and he has not played well. They don’t have any coverage players right now and they’re trading them at the deadline. So very clearly this team is just and they fired their head coach so this is a duh. But Mike Borgzi, the general manager, I think is just looking at this entire roster and saying, “We maybe have 10 players, 10 total that I’m cool with. Everybody else is going to be out of here within two years. Everybody. That’s how it feels. And that’s how it feels like the Titans are operating. And so to take them in the middle of the season here to get a win or even to cover and and doesn’t feel smart to the injuries, too. You look at here’s the list of guys not practicing today for Tennessee. Calvin Ridley, Jeffrey Simmons, Ardan Key, Xavier Woods, Dan Moore Jr., Daryl Baker, Blake Hance. I mean, there’s some key guys on this team that are out for this game. It’s going to be it’s going to be tough to see them keeping up.

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Los Angeles Chargers and The Tennessee Titans.

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