Rob0729

Voted the AFC Championship Game. My heart says the Pats will go there, but my head says they will lose in San Deigo in the division round.

mgcolby

The winner of the Pats/Chargers game will represent the AFC in the SuperBowl. Not sure where the talk of the "Chargers will crush us" is coming from. They have played well winning 11 in a row. But they haven't been exactly crushing good opposition. If our defense is week, then what is their's? The only thing helping their defense out, is they play in an offensively challenged division. They can't run the ball and will rely on Rivers magic to win.

A Pats/Chargers game will be a nailbiter that will come down to the wire. IMO, that game is 50/50. I'll believe they crush us when they actually beat us in the playoffs.

Here are the Chargers defensive ratings:

Total Defense: 16th
Scoring: 11th
Passing: 11th
Rushing: 20th

After playing 6 games against the 31st, 25th and the 15th ranked offenses in the league. Not to mention the Browns (32nd), Miami (17th) that is half of there games against week offenses and yet the defensive numbers are less than impressive.

Don't get me wrong I think the Chargers are the team to beat in the AFC, but I don't see them as some indestructable force.

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chevss454

The runnng games gotta come up huge against both the Ravens and Chargers. Welcome back Taylor and Morris!

NSPF

The Pats will probably win against the Ravens, and lose against the Chargers. However, Its more likely that they go one and done though than they win their first game and then lose against the Chargers, because then you are predicting the outcome of two games instead of one. Still, poll results are interesting.

Buchanty

Losing Welker dims the prospects of getting to both AFC and SB, though its still a case of any given Sunday. It really depends on the amount of pluck the team has. I am an optimist but it will require more than I have seen this season to get to Miami.

One thing I am relatively sure of is that the Jets will not get far, they have played marshmallows for the past 2 weeks and will lose their confidence and composure on the second Sanchez interception.

SD is the team to beat, if we get to SD I will be praying for the end to the jinx we have been playing under for the past 2 years.

lamafist

If you take a look at the stats over at FootballOutsiders -- which are per-play success rates weighted by down, distance, score differential, and adjusted for opponents faced -- the Chargers defense ranks out as:

Overall: 23rd
Passing: 18th
Rushing: 26th

There D has been playing somewhat better down the stretch, but not even enough to call above average.

Meanwhile, their offense has only the 29th ranked rushing attack in the game... but the top-ranked passing attack, and not by a little, either.

So basically, they are a very hot, but very one-dimensional team. They beat you with a fierce passing game. Unfortunately, the last time we played a team like that, we got blown out on national TV. There are reasons, however, to be more confident against the Chargers O than the Saints.

The Saints killed the Pats with their multi-receiver sets creating bad matchups and miscommunication in the secondary. The Chargers are more focused on two go-to pass catchers, with Vincent Jackson absolutely murdering teams deep, and Antonio Gates quietly having what might be his best season. And while Rivers has been having a break-out year throwing to those two guys, he hasn't looked great when forced to look elsewhere.

I'd actually be more worried going up against Indi than I would SD, as I think Manning can and would move the ball against us with Garcon and Collie left in single coverage.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

Have you seen our roster lately?..many of our veterans with playoff experience are now retired or with other teams,many are from teams who never got to the postseason or didn't go far.

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lamafist

Overall, my feeling is this:

The Pats aren't a great team this year. We can all see that, which is why most of our playoff hopes are pretty dim. But none of the other teams in the AFC are great, either. The Colts have managed to scrape by, eking out unimpressive wins over a mostly unimpressive schedule. The Chargers are one dimensional. The Ravens, Bengals, & Jets deficiencies are obvious.

To me, this seems like one of the more even post-season slates the AFC has had in recent history. The Chargers and Colts have to be considered favorites right now because they have one fewer game they need to win, but other than that, I think the Pats would have as good a chance as any team in the AFC.

goheels22002

So do you think the Patriots have less of a chance in these playoffs than the 2001-2002 team?

mgteich

I suspect that the results are about the same as they have been for weeks.