NFL Intriguing Game of the Week Baltimore Ravens @ Los Angeles Chargers

NFL Intriguing Game of the Week

Baltimore Ravens @ Los Angeles Chargers

Bias+ Score 4.2 favors Los Angeles Chargers

By Barry Sterling Mitchell

My ‘Intriguing’ game of the week is Ravens versus Chargers Monday Night. The initial point of intrigue for me was not really the sibling coaching matchup. That came when my cohost on Ben and Barry on Football reminded me that this was going to be an Har-Bowl. 

Before that, I was looking at the top scoring defense in the league, the LA Chargers at the time only allowing 14.5 points per game going up against Baltimore Ravens team who’s ranked second in scoring putting up 30.4 points per game.  However, the main point with me, again this is the Sterling Net Point Power Rankings, when we look at things from the ranking perspective many times we see Ranking Differential. 

Ranking Differential? That’s when you’re looking at the rankings for Points For (PF) and the Points Against (PA) and you see a large difference between where they rank in those two sides of the ball. So for example, the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo is third and scoring and ninth and defense. The differentials of six is not that bad. Both sides of the ball are close to the same efficiency and proficiency. But when you see large differentials, you have to know that that’s a weakness. There’s a problem there or at least let’s keep an eye on that because you know maybe they stumbled out of the gate. We’ve seen teams move up the rankings in the second half of the season or even out of a Bye, so we keep an eye on that type of thing.

For both teams, this past weekend has been a departure from the norm. Baltimore had a stunning loss last week. It was a somewhat low scoring event with the Ravens only giving up 18 points. However, they only put up 16 of their own and questions are still arising as to whether or not they really know how to deploy Derrick Henry.

On the other side of the ball, the Chargers have the opposite problem, they’re tops on defense, but the offense is not a high scoring affair. However, in the net point world that can still work for you if your Ranking Differential isn’t too big.

I’ve been lauding the return of Jim Harbaugh and making note throughout the season that his defense has been tops in the league throughout. So, Jim Harbaugh came back into the league and established a number one defense after having won a championship at the college level after having taken his NFL team to the Super Bowl as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. (much less against John H.).

So, this all adds to the intrigue in this game. The number one defense against the number two offense AND the number 18 offense scoring 22 points a game against the number 23 scoring defense with the Baltimore Ravens allowing 24.6 points per game. Bias+ favors the Chargers. We at Ben and Barry on Football agree that if Derrick Henry touches the ball 18 to 25 times, the win ratio looks like the Eagles “Tush Push”. 

For more check the video. Enjoy!