The Los Angeles Chargers had a bit of a strange 2017 season. It involved them starting 0-4 and then somehow finishing 9-7 and just barely out of the playoffs. Now, heading into the 2018 season, things are looking up due to a strong roster. After a few years of missing the mark, now the organization is expecting a return to the playoffs. The question is, how does the path ahead of them to the playoffs look on the schedule?
Last Word on Pro Football is analyzing the schedules of all 32 NFL teams. Each team’s 16-game slate will be split into its most difficult (1-8) and easiest games (9-16). For this article, the hardest games on the Chargers schedules will be looked at.
Los Angeles Chargers Easiest Games of 2018 Season
9. Week Five: vs Oakland Raiders
One problem the Chargers have had in Los Angeles thus far (which carried over from their final years in San Diego) is having a ton of fans show up at their home field – from the other team. They finished 5-3 at home in 2017, so this is clearly not a huge issue overall in terms of affecting wins and losses. But the fact is that Los Angeles is home to a lot of Oakland Raiders fans, so that issue of getting swamped at home by opposing fans is more prevalent here. That fact nudges them slightly to the toughest of the home games against AFC West rivals.
10. Week 11: vs Denver Broncos
Even though the Chargers don’t have much of a home field advantage right now, it still stands to reason that they’ll have an easier time playing in Los Angeles than at Mile High. And it’ll also help that there will likely be less pressure at this mid-season meeting compared to Week 17 when they face the Denver Broncos again. This is one of those games that could end up going either way due to it being a divisional game. It may ultimately come down to which squad plays better defense. Still, the Chargers look to have the advantage in most respects.
11. Week One: vs Kansas City Chiefs
It may seem ironic ranking this matchup as this easy after making the “away” game against the Kansas City Chiefs the third toughest. However, this home matchup against the Chiefs may prove easier than in recent years. They have a lot of question marks right now with an unproven quarterback and a very thin secondary. While they might still be able to keep up on offense if Patrick Mahomes does well, the Chiefs’ lack of defense and lack of home-field advantage might be just what the Chargers need to snap their losing streak against the team.
12. Week 16: vs Baltimore Ravens
This could potentially be a tougher game if the Chargers are playing against Lamar Jackson instead of Joe Flacco. But otherwise, there should not be a lot of trouble here. The Baltimore Ravens were not very high-powered on offense last year. Although they did retool a bit at receiver, it’s still difficult to see Flacco lighting up the improved Chargers secondary. And the Ravens’ own defense is still good, but it may not be enough. It will also help that the Chargers don’t have to travel to the other coast.
13. Week 12: vs Arizona Cardinals
Who knows who the Chargers will be facing at quarterback here? It may not matter a whole lot, as the Arizona Cardinals don’t have much receiver depth beyond Larry Fitzgerald and he’ll be getting shadowed by Casey Hayward. The only way that the Cardinals could get away with this would be if David Johnson had a big game, but this still kind of feels like a team in rebuilding mode right now. That should make it one of the easier games on the schedule for the Chargers.
14. Week 14: vs Cincinnati Bengals
This is unlikely to be a tough game for the Chargers. The Cincinnati Bengals have been quite inconsistent on the offense the last couple of years, and don’t really have enough on defense anymore. This is also another case where lack of depth at the receiver position could potentially make for a feast for the Chargers secondary. All in all, the Chargers should not have as much trouble against Andy Dalton’s squad this time as they did in previous years.
15. Week Two: at Buffalo Bills
If the Chargers continue their losing streak against the Chiefs in Week 1, at least they’ll have an easy bounce-back win the following week when playing the Buffalo Bills. This is a team that has very little power on offense beyond LeSean McCoy. And if Nathan Peterman somehow ends up playing again, the Chargers secondary will probably have another fun game.
16. Week Six: at Cleveland Browns
A lot of people have been saying the Cleveland Browns will be better this year. However, this team has been so bad for so long that it’s rather pointless to get one’s hopes up about them until they prove otherwise. Assuming that trend does continue, the Browns should be an easy win. Of course, the Chargers’ last two meetings versus the Browns have not gone like they should. While they avoided another embarrassing loss to them in 2017, they still only won 19-10, which was way closer than it should have been. And really, it would be just like the Chargers to win the toughest game on paper (the Los Angeles Rams) and then somehow lose an easy game like this. But this is analyzing game easiness or toughness, not making a prediction. And this game still does rank as what should be a quite easy one.
Be sure to check out the Chargers toughest games of 2018.
