HOW THEY MATCH UP
CHARGERS (5-6) VS. CLEVELAND (0-11)
When Chargers have the ball
As the Chargers begin the final month of the season, their offense finally has shown signs of life in consecutive weeks, against Buffalo and Dallas. The big reasons why the Chargers are legitimately threatening with the football are Philip Rivers and receiver Keenan Allen. Rivers has found Allen all over the field in the last two weeks, mostly without defenders in sight. Allen’s dominance against the Bills and Cowboys should have the Browns’ attention, and it could really open things up for Tyrell Williams, Travis Benjamin, Antonio Gates and Hunter Henry. Cleveland has been a lot of not great things this season, but the team has always competed on defense. Though he’s been slowed with injuries, rookie Myles Garrett has looked worthy of the No. 1 pick. If the Chargers can avoid the Cleveland pass rush and get ahead early, they’d really like to get Melvin Gordon on track and run the ball with better efficiency than they did in Dallas.
When Browns have the ball
For the second time in three weeks, the Chargers’ impactful defense gets to face a rookie quarterback. But, unlike Nathan Peterman, DeShone Kizer won’t be thrown into the fire without experience. He’s had 10 starts, albeit losing all of them. Still, the rookie is a dual threat who will force the Chargers to stay disciplined. Running back Isaiah Crowell is coming off his best game of the season and Duke Johnson is a threat in the passing game out of the backfield. The big question mark will be Josh Gordon, who will be returning to the field for the first time in three years after a long history of drug abuse. At one time, the receiver was among the best in the NFL. He’ll be a test for the Chargers’ secondary. Still, it’s hard to imagine that Cleveland will have a lot of success stopping edge rushers Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram from getting into the backfield and forcing Kizer into taking sacks or throwing picks.
When they kick
The Chargers will use their third kicker of the year, with Travis Coons getting his shot after Nick Novak couldn’t recover from the back injury he suffered in the win in Dallas. Coons was pretty accurate in his only year in the NFL, in 2015, and he returns to the league to face his former team. Punter Drew Kaser could help with the kickoff duties, though the team won’t want him taking any more extra points unless absolutely necessary considering he missed the warmup net after being pushed into emergency duty last week. When Kaser punts, the Chargers will have to worry about rookie Jabrill Peppers, who will be returning punts for the Browns. Former Brown Travis Benjamin would love to have a big return against his former team.
Dan Woike’s prediction
OK, enough playing around. The Chargers should win. The Browns are winless for a lot of reasons, and if you were worried about the Chargers’ looking past them, they just have to look back one year to when they lost to the winless Browns. Cleveland, if you listen to the Chargers’ coaches, is better than its record suggests. If it happens Sunday, the Chargers’ roller-coaster season will take an unexpected dip that would severely hurt their playoff chances. It’s happened to teams before. It’s obviously already happened to the Chargers. But, it won’t happen again — at least not this Sunday. CHARGERS 31, BROWNS 14