{"id":371095,"date":"2025-12-27T01:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371095\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T01:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:03:06","slug":"nfl-experts-make-surprising-prediction-for-chargers-texans-afc-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371095\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL experts make surprising prediction for Chargers-Texans AFC showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos found a way to beat the Kansas City Chiefs’ junior varsity on Christmas. Now it’s up to the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> to keep the pressure on. Albeit against a much tougher opponent. <\/p>\n

The 11-4 Chargers can still make next week’s regular-season finale a de facto AFC West Championship Game, but they have to beat the surging 10-5 Houston Texans<\/a> in order to do so. If the Bolts win on Saturday at SoFi Stadium they’ll improve to 12-4 and could tie the 13-3 Broncos with a in in Week 18. L.A. already has one win over Denver, so a season sweep would give it the tiebreaker and the division title for the first time since 2009.<\/p>\n

MORE: Pro Bowl honor is nice but glaring stat proves Chargers’ Justin Herbert should be MVP<\/a><\/p>\n

During their four-game winning streak the Chargers have taken care of the Philadelphia Eagles, a full-strength Chiefs’ team and the Dallas Cowboys. Still, they haven’t made everyone a believer.<\/p>\n

On USA Today’s panel of six expert prognosticators<\/a>, four are predicting a Texans’ upset win on the road that will lock the Chargers into only a Wild Card berth.<\/p>\n

Chargers over Texans<\/p>\n

“Can the Chargers banged up O-line hold up against the Texans?” writes Tyler Dragon. “If they can protect Justin Herbert just a little, they should win at home.”<\/p>\n

Says Lorenzo Reyes, “This is a fascinating matchup, but I’m going to give the edge to the Chargers because they’re at home and are more balanced, whereas Houston’s offense is susceptible to the occasional poor performance.”<\/p>\n

MORE: Justin Herbert looks to make amends, 4 other things to know about Chargers vs. Texans<\/a><\/p>\n

Texans over Chargers<\/p>\n

“The Texans’ defense is too good to allow Harbaugh’s run-focused game plan to control the tempo,” writes Jon Hoefling. “Just a bad matchup for Los Angeles.”<\/p>\n

\"Ladd<\/p>\n

Ladd McConkey | Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Enjoy free coverage of the Chargers from Los Angeles Chargers on SI<\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

Sign Up For the Chargers Daily Digest – OnSI\u2019s Free Los Angeles Chargers Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

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After playoff berth, where are Chargers in 2026 NFL draft order?<\/a><\/p>\n

Texans’ C.J. Stroud tiptoes around bulletin-board material while praising Chargers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos found a way to beat the Kansas City Chiefs’ junior varsity on Christmas. Now it’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-371095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}