Despite an abundance of injuries, NFL week five’s Monday night football game should be a good one. Although the two clubs are just 2-2, the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers both have legitimate playoff aspirations for this 2015 season. Pittsburgh is coming off a 23-20 home overtime loss to the Ravens a week ago Thursday, while the Chargers eked out a 30-27 home victory over the Browns last Sunday. Both teams are currently 2-2 and are seeking to keep within two games of undefeated leaders in their respective divisions (the 5-0 Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals). Game kicks off at 8:30 pm eastern time and is broadcast on ESPN.<\/p>\n
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San Diego<\/strong><\/span> entered the week with the NFL’s number one offense (since surpassed by the Patriots), averaging 421 yards per game. Quarterback Philip Rivers<\/span> has single handily carried the Charger offense, completing 71% of his throws and averaging 312 passing yards per game. San Diego will be without three starters on offense: LT King Dunlap<\/span> (concussion), LG Orlando Franklin<\/span> (ankle) and WR Stevie Johnson<\/span> (hamstring), and has five other starting or key offensive players injured (C Chris Watt<\/span>, RG D.J. Fluker<\/span>, OL Chris Hairston<\/span>, WR Jacoby Jones<\/span>, WR Malcom Floyd<\/span>). The Chargers do get TE Antonio Gates<\/span> back after serving a four-game suspension for a banned substance, but the biggest obstacle for San Diego will be giving Rivers a clean pocket behind a banged-up makeshift offensive line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Pittsburgh<\/strong><\/span> secondary has improved since the debacle against the Patriots in week one, but it is still a work in progress. That group has been helped out by an effective pass rush; the Steeler front seven versus San Diego’s o-line will be the key to the game. If Rivers has enough time he is capable of torching the Pittsburgh defensive backfield with throws to Gates, WR Keenan Allen<\/span> (33 receptions for 387 yards and 3 TD) and old friend Danny Woodhead<\/span> (16 catches for 203 yards; 347 yards from scrimmage and 7.1 yards per touch).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Steelers will have had 11 days to get Michael Vick<\/span> acclimated to the offense, so he should be more productive than he was a week ago. With Antonio Bryant<\/span> (an NFL-best 119.5 yards receiving per game) on the field, San Diego cannot focus on stopping RB Le’Veon Bell<\/span>. Bell is averaging 4.7 yards per carry and 95.5 yards rushing per game, and should feast on a San Diego defense that is allowing 4.9 Yards per carry (third worst in the NFL).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Both the Steelers and Ravens have had a tendency to let down and underachieve in games after they play each other; we saw a glimpse of that Sunday when Baltimore was defeated at home by the Cleveland Browns. Add in OC Todd Haley<\/span>‘s often perplexing and overly conservative play calling, and Pittsburgh is far from a lock to win this game – despite San Diego’s woes on defense (they have allowed at least 24 points in every game thus far) and their MASH<\/em>-unit of an offensive line. The Steelers are 2-7 west of the Rockies in the Mike Tomlin<\/span> era; the last time Pittsburgh won a game in the pacific time zone was ten years ago. To get an idea of how long ago that was, Ben Roethlisberger<\/span> was in his second year in the NFL.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prediction<\/strong><\/span>: I don’t feel strongly either way in this game; it’s easy to find reasons why either team should win (or lose). I’ll go with the Chargers to win, but Pittsburgh keeping it close enough to cover before a Tomlin brain cramp gives the game away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pick: Chargers 27, Steelers 24<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Steelers +3\u00bd; over 45\u00bd; Steelers +155<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite an abundance of injuries, NFL week five’s Monday night football game should be a good one. Although the two clubs are just 2-2, the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers both have legitimate playoff aspirations for this 2015 season. Pittsburgh is coming off a 23-20 home overtime loss to the Ravens a week ago Thursday, while the Chargers eked out a 30-27 home victory over the Browns last Sunday. Both teams are currently 2-2 and are seeking to keep within two games of undefeated leaders in their respective divisions (the 5-0 Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[185,284,409,407,122,408,207,335,239,393,70,259,406,247,201,248,327],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2015-nfl-season","tag-against-the-spread","tag-antonio-bryant","tag-danny-woodhead","tag-espn","tag-keenan-allen","tag-leveon-bell","tag-michael-vick","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-monday-night-football","tag-nfl","tag-odds","tag-philip-rivers","tag-picks","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-predictions","tag-san-diego-chargers"],"yoast_head":"\n