Mariotti and Cowlishaw All About the Chargers

I'm currently watching the show "Around the Horn" on ESPN and Jay Mariotti claims that the San Diego Chargers are going to the Super Bowl this year. Tim Cowlishaw claims that the Chargers will win 12 games. This is all based off a 27-0 route of the sad Oakland Raiders. I didn't realize how pathetic the Raiders were until last night.

San Diego has a great front seven on defense and we all know who they have on offense, LaDanian Tomlinson. The secondary struggled last year and they have an unproven quarterback in Phillip Rivers. It's way too early to jump on the Charger bandwagon. If they had beaten up other division foes, such as the Broncos or the Chiefs, then I'd be more tempted to hop on, but not with a win over the Raiders. One thing is for certain though. If LT continues to gallop across the field like he did last night, that'll make Rivers' job much easier.

You're jumping the gun a bit too early guys. Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Denver, Kansas City, New England, Cincinnati, and Miami are all solid ball clubs. The Jets with a healthy Chad Pennington should improve from a season ago. For some reason, some seem high up on Tennessee. Buffalo looked improved on Sunday from a year ago. Houston should be improved, although, that's not saying much. The only team I can think of that don't either have a chance to compete or even look the slightest bit improved is the Oakland Raiders. With the parity in football, it's impossible to tell at this point who will be representing the two league in the Super Bowl, mainly because of the health situation. We don't know who's going to get hurt and for how long. If LT gets banged up, then, so much for the Charger offense. What the Chargers need to show this year is that they can play against the pass and that they themselves can pass. San Diego was ranked 28th out of 32 teams in pass defense a year ago. If they can maintain their dominance on run defense and improve anywhere from 15 to 20 in the league in pass defense, then their D should keep the team in most all of their games. If Rivers can get the ball to tight end Antonio Gates, not turn the ball over much, and complete a good 10-15 passes a game (so long as LT does his thing), the offense should be pretty efficient. One doesn't need a great quarterback in order to move the Chargers along with LT in the backfield.