Preview: San Diego @ Pittsburgh - Sunday Nov.16, 2008

By Razor Sharp Sports

At the beginning of the season, you wouldn’t have had a very tough time convincing me that this could be very well be a preview of the AFC Championship game.  The season hasn’t quite played out that way and now you would have a incredibly tough time sell me that same statement.  The Steelers side of things would be the easier of the two halfs to convince me on, but the San Diego Chargers may be the biggest disappointment in the NFL so far this year.  Still as disappointing as they have been, they are still just a game out of their division lead and the wildcard.  So this week, this game may have lost a little of its luster, but it is still very important for both teams.  Lets take a look at each of them.

First we have the San Diego Chargers.  Heading into the year, you were looking at a team with quite possibly the best all-around player in the league in RB LaDainian Tomlinson.  You had one of the best young arms at QB in Phillip Rivers, The best TE in all of football in Antonio Gates and one of the best defenses around with Shaun Merriman, Antonio Cromartie and Company.  Now here we are in week 11 and they are just 4-5 and are coming off a 1 point victory over one of the worst football in the NFL in Kansas City and that was on a missed two-point conversion in the final minute.  Offensively, they haven’t gotten the production out of Tomlinson that they have in the past.  He has run for just 629 yards and just 4 TDs.  They have gotten good production through the air.  Rivers has completed over 65% of his passes for 2354 yards.  He has thrown 21 TDs and just 8 ints.  His QB rating is 1st in the NFL. Rivers has found TE Antonio Gates a team leading 38 times for 469 yards and 6 TDs.  The real problem for the Chargers have been on the other side of the ball.  This once top-ranked defense ranks 26th in yards allowed and 21st on points allowed.  The loss of Merriman for the season due to a knee injury has hurt tremendously.

The Steelers have been one of those teams that you start putting them among the elite and then they get beat.  They start 5-1 and have a big match-up against the Super Bowl Champion Giants and lose, but then they bounce back at Washington.  Then they lose a big game at home against Indianapolis.  There is one thing that has been the key to keeping the Steelers from rising to the top and that has been injury.  RB Willie Parker has played in just 4 games.  His back-up Rashard Mendenhall was lost for the season after 4 games and QB Ben Roethlisberger has been knocked out of games and continues to battle, while playing hurt.  Roethlisberger’s numbers have been less than impressive.  Dealing with injury, he has completed just 60% of his passes for 1686 yards 10 TDs and 11 ints.  Unlike the Chargers, the Steelers defense is the reason they are winning.  This team is 1st in the NFL in yards per game allowed at 240 yds/game and is 3rd in points with 140.  They are just as tough on the ground or through the air.  They are 2nd in Rush defense and 1st in pass defense.

Looking at these two teams and I expect the defenses to shine.  The Steeler defense has been their all year and a banged up Steeler offense will be slowed down by an athletic Charger unit that hasn’t played up to their potential this year yet.  FREE WINNER: take the San Diego/Pittsburgh game UNDER the total of 43.  Don’t forget you can always get a free winner each and everyday from us by going to www.freeplays.com and clicking on Razor Sharp Sports or you can always call the Razor Sharp Free Pick Phone at 1-800-549-7111.