{"id":17751,"date":"2011-09-16T09:25:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17751"},"modified":"2011-09-16T09:25:15","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T14:25:15","slug":"philip-rivers-vs-tom-brady-san-diego-chargers-at-new-england-patriots-free-nfl-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/philip-rivers-vs-tom-brady-san-diego-chargers-at-new-england-patriots-free-nfl-pick-17751\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Rivers vs. Tom Brady: San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots Free NFL Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots
\nSunday, 9\/18\/11, 4:15 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 New England -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 New England -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 51
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 53.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Patriots<\/a>
New England Patriots QB Tom Brady threw for a career-high 517 passing yards last week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

San Diego picked up a 24-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings as nine-point home favorites in the opener and will now travel on the road to the toughest place in the NFL.\u00a0 The Chargers missed out on a major opportunity to beat the Patriots in Southern California a year ago, dropping a 23-20 contest as 2.5-point home favorites despite out-gaining them by 184 yards.\u00a0 Quarterback Philip Rivers is looking to gain revenge and improve upon his 1-4 mark versus New England.\u00a0 San Diego is 7-9 ATS on the road the past two-plus seasons and the \u2018over\u2019 is 9-5 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Chargers rely a great deal on the passing game and Rivers has delivered time and again, throwing for 335 yards and two touchdowns in the opener.\u00a0 San Diego will need to get its running game going, as the backfield tandem of Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert are certainly capable.\u00a0 It\u2019s really a battle on the sidelines as well in this contest, as Chargers head coach Norv Turner matches up with New England\u2019s Bill Belichick.\u00a0 The Chargers are 14-19-2 in the series and have lost four of their last five games against the Patriots.<\/p>\n

New England ranked up a team-record 622 total yards in a 38-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football, led by the passing exploits of Tom Brady, who threw for a career-high 517 yards.\u00a0 The Patriots spent little time celebrating the win due to traveling and having a short week after the contest, as all focus has been squarely placed on the Chargers.\u00a0 \u201cReally, whatever happened Monday night, it really doesn\u2019t matter as it relates to San Diego,\u201d commented offensive coordinator Bill O\u2019Brien.\u00a0 The passing game will be tested against a Chargers secondary that allowed just 39 passing yards to Donovan McNabb in Week 1.\u00a0 New England is 5-2 ATS as a home favorite of 3.5 to 7 points and the \u2018over\u2019 is 6-1 in those games.<\/p>\n

The Patriots main focus this week is tightening up a secondary that allowed Miami quarterback Chad Henne to throw for over 400 yards.\u00a0 New England knows that this week\u2019s opponent is a much more dangerous offensive unit, especially with wide receivers Malcolm Floyd and Vincent Jackson on the outside.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, the offensive line will need to continue on without center Dan Koppen, who is expected to be out for an extended amount of time with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Chargers due to their 22-6-3 ATS mark as an underdog, while the favorite in this series is 2-6 in the last eight meetings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots Sunday, 9\/18\/11, 4:15 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New England -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New England -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 51 Current Total:\u00a0 53.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker San Diego picked up a 24-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings as nine-point home favorites in the opener and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3577,125,1114,1035,298,398],"class_list":["post-17751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-bill-belichick","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-norv-turner","tag-philip-rivers","tag-san-diego-chargers","tag-tom-brady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17752,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751\/revisions\/17752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}