Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers Preview and Pick

The Kansas City Chiefs, struggling to stay alive in the playoff picture, travel to San Diego to take on the Chargers who are fighting for a playoff bye and homefield advantage in the playoffs in the Sunday prime time game.

Kansas City, at 7-6, is currently 1 game back in the wildcard picture but can not afford another loss as it doesn't look good for them in terms of the tiebreakers used. San Diego, at 11-2, has clinched the AFC West division and has the best record in the AFC.

The Chiefs go on the road after losing 2 straight games and hope to bounce back against the powerful Chargers. Kansas City is 2-2 since starting QB Trent Green has returned from his week 1 injury.

The Chargers are riding a 7 game winning streak that has seen them average over 35 points a game in those 7 games. San Diego is led by RB LaDainian Tomlinson who has already set the season TD record by scoring 29 TDs.

Kansas City is 6-7 against the spread this season, they are 2-4 straight up and 2-4 ATS on the road.

San Diego is 8-5 ATS this season, and 6-0 SU and 4-2 vs. the number at home.

Kansas City starting QB, Trent Green, who has only played in 5 games has thrown for 5 touchdowns and also has 5 interceptions for the Chiefs and sports a QB rating of 82.7 with a 64.3% completion rate.

San Diego starting QB, Phillip Rivers, is in his first year as the Charger starter. He has 18 touchdown passes and only 6 interceptions. His QB rating is 96.3 with a completion rate of 64.5%.

The Chiefs are outrushing opponents this season by a 133-111 yards-per-game average, while the Chargers are outrushing their opponents by a 152-98 YPG margin.

Kansas City is averaging a 5.4 yards per play on the season while San Diego is averaging 5.9 yards per play. The Chiefs defense has given up an average of 5.4 yards per play while the Chargers have given up an average of 5.2 yards per play.

These two teams have played eight common opponents this season. In these games Kansas City has a record of 4-5 and is averaging 18.8 points and giving up an average of 18.4 points. San Diego is 9-1 and is averaging 33.4 points and giving up an average of 19.9 against these 8 teams.

These two teams have already met this season with the Chiefs giving the Chargers one of their losses as they were victorious by a score of 30-27 at Kansas City. The Chiefs and Chargers have split the last 10 meetings as each team has won 5 times.

Kansas City ranks 15th in total offense averaging 324.2 yards per game. San Diego ranks 5th with 366.1 yards per game.

In scoring offense, Kansas City also ranks 15th averaging 20.5 points per game and San Diego ranks 1st averaging 32.7 points per game.

On the defensive side of the ball the Chiefs rank 13th in total defense giving up 323.5 yards per game while the Chargers rank 7th giving up an average of 294.3 yards per game.

In scoring defense Kansas City ranks 11th and San Diego ranks 12th giving up 19.7 and 19.8 points per game, respectively.

The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com ranks Kansas City #17 at 19.72, San Diego is #1 at 31.67.

The Over/Under is 6-6 in Chiefs games this season, 9-4 in Chargers games.

San Diego opened up as a 9 point road favorite with a total of 47. The line has stayed at -9 but the total has gone down to 46. At the time of this writing, the betting public was backing the Chargers 68%-32%.