POWER RANKINGS: Week 11 Roundup

The Chargers are officially Juggernauts (well, Hulkbusters!)

The Chargers have been on a roll lately. Even after questionable starts in both 2017 AND 2018, the Bolts really seem to get into a groove by mid-season. What separates the men from the boys, however, is how they close their season. Here, an inch or two after mid-way, the Chargers are among the elite of the NFL from most every perspective. After being a near-unanimous #5 for two straight weeks, they jumped up this week due almost entirely to the New England Patriots laying an egg against the Tennessee Titans.

The good news for the Chargers? They go up against a struggling Broncos team (that is still very dangerous, mind you), while two of the top 3 slug it out in Mexico Los Angeles. This means that, barring a tie, one of those juggernauts will fall. If the Chargers take care of business at home this week, ladies and gentlemen—-you’re looking at one of the top 3 teams in the entire league.

Fight for LA? Nah, let the Rams have it this week. The Chargers are definitely gunning for the Saints to fall.

ESPN

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Los Angeles Chargers

Previous ranking: 5

Defining stat: 15.5. That’s the average points per game the Chargers’ defense is allowing during the team’s six-game winning streak, tops in the NFL during that stretch. The Chargers also are No. 1 in red zone efficiency since Week 4 (33.3%), and have had two goal-line stands where they’ve kept the offense out of the end zone in back-to-back weeks against the Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders. The Chargers have bought into defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s philosophy of defending every blade of grass.

5. Pittsburgh Steelers

6. New England Patriots

7. Chicago Bears

8. Minnesota Vikings

9. Carolina Panthers

10. Houston Texans

SB Nation

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers and Steelers inched just a bit close to the top of the rankings as both teams are riding impressive winning streaks. The Steelers have won five straight while the Chargers have won six straight. Los Angeles’ only two losses are to the Chiefs (Week 1) and Rams (Week 3).

5. Pittsburgh Steelers

6. New England Patriots

7. Chicago Bears

8. Houston Texans

9. Washington Redskins

10. Carolina Panthers

CBS Sports

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Los Angeles Rams

3. Kansas City Chiefs

4. Los Angeles Chargers

Chargers They are quietly having an impressive season, pushing the Chiefs in the division. Wait until they get Joey Bosa back too.

5. New England Patriots

6. Pittsburgh Steelers

7. Minnesota Vikings

8. Chicago Bears

9. Houston Texans

10. Carolina Panthers

NBC Sports

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Los Angeles Rams

3. Kansas City Chiefs

4. Los Angeles Chargers

Losing Denzel Perryman for the stretch run is just brutal. Stop hurting the Chargers!

5. New England Patriots

6. Pittsburgh Steelers

7. Houston Texans

8. Chicago Bears

9. Washington Redskins

10. Carolina Panthers

NFL.com

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Los Angeles Chargers

Previous rank:No. 5

The Chargers are tough to gauge at this point, as they keep beating weaker squads. On the other hand, their only two losses came against the Chiefs and Rams. They’ve also won six straight sans a top-10 defensive player. With Joey Bosa, the Bolts can beat anyone. Without him, they are a contending team that needs the offense to put up its fair share of points. Defensively, Anthony Lynn’s group has played viably most of the season, while enduring a few hiccups here and there (SEE: vs. the Chiefs, Rams and even the 49ers). The Chargers reside over New England in these rankings for now, because they have yet to be rattled like the Pats were this past weekend. Time will tell.

5. New England Patriots

6. Pittsburgh Steelers

7. Houston Texans

8. Chicago Bears

9. Washington Redskins

10. Carolina Panthers

Bleacher Report

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Los Angeles Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers aren’t a popular team, which is the only reason a seven-win squad has a (betting) line like they do.

What’s not to like about the Chargers?

Philip Rivers is on fire, completing 67.3 percent of his passes with 21 touchdowns against just four interceptions. Behind him, Melvin Gordon has 672 yards and seven touchdowns on a 5.4 per-carry average. And the defense hasn’t let up more than 19 points over its last five outings, part of a six-game streak.

Oh, and the only losses have come at the hands of elite squads like Kansas City and the Los Angeles Rams.

At this point, a playoff berth seems a formality.

5. Pittsburgh Steelers

6. Carolina Panthers

7. New England Patriots

8. Washington Redskins

9. Chicago Bears

10. Houston Texans

USA Today

1. New Orleans Saints

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Pittsburgh Steelers

5. Los Angeles Chargers

This Sunday will mark their first game at home in six weeks, but they’ve bolted to six straight wins nonetheless. However injury bug returned to claim LB Denzel Perryman.

6. New England Patriots

7. Minnesota Vikings

8. Chicago Bears

9. Washington Redskins

10. Carolina Panthers

Yahoo Sports

1. Kansas City Chiefs

2. New Orleans Saints

3. Los Angeles Rams

4. Los Angeles Chargers

(LW: 5)

The knock on Melvin Gordon before this season was that he wasn’t very efficient. He has taken his yards per carry from 3.9 last season to 5.4 this season. Gordon also has 11 touchdowns in eight games. He has blossomed into a star.

5. Pittsburgh Steelers

6. New England Patriots

7. Minnesota Vikings

8. Chicago Bears

9. Carolina Panthers

10. Houston Texans

• Average Ranking: 4.1
• Most Common Ranking: 4
• Last Week Average: 5.0
• Chargers Superbowl Futures: +1200 (opened at +3300)
• Lifetime heliocentric orbits for Stan Lee: 95 years (opened at <58.4 [1922])

-Jason “Any Excuse for Marvel” Michaels

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