Favorite 'Dogs: Back Chargers to Pull Off Potential Upset

The NFL regular season has come and gone, and after 272 games, we enter what looks to be a wide-open postseason. 

The Chiefs, Lions, and Ravens were among the favorites to win it all come February, and all three teams now must wait until September to play their next games. If the playoffs are anywhere near as unpredictable as the regular season was, football fans are in for a wild January. 

As we do at the beginning of each week, let’s pinpoint an underdog who might be poised to pull an upset this week.

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Chargers @ Patriots 

The last time the Patriots hosted a playoff game was in January 2020. Months later, Tom Brady would become a free agent and eventually, a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. The Patriots are hoping this game goes better than that one did, as the Mike Vrabel-led Titans upset the home team that Saturday night, pre-COVID. 

At 14-3, the Pats might have the league MVP in Drake Maye, and Coach of the Year in Vrabel, but could they be one-and-done in the playoffs? 

The Chargers, although decimated on the offensive line, present some major threats as an underdog here. They, too, enter January with an elite coach-quarterback duo in Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh. They also have one of the better defenses in the league, ranked 10th in DVOA, compared to the Patriots, who rank 23rd. 

Despite the gaudy record, the Patriots have only beaten two teams this year that made the playoffs — the Panthers back in September and the Bills back in October. 

The big weakness for the Chargers is their offensive line, which lost its two best players to injury, but that might not haunt them against the Patriots, who were 26th in the league in sacks. 

I’ll take the more battle-tested Chargers to pull the upset.

PICK: Chargers (+3.5, +150 ML) to lose by fewer than 3.5 or win outright

Will Hill, a contributor on the Bear Bets Podcast, has been betting on sports for over a decade. He is a betting analyst who has been a host on VSiN, as well as the Goldboys Network.

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