Colts, Chargers significant underdogs in divisional round

Posted by PlexusGroupe on January 5, 2014, 5:31 PM EST
AP

The Colts and Chargers won outright as underdogs this weekend to advance to the AFC divisional-playoff round.

If the clubs are to meet in the AFC title game in two weeks, they will again have to be upsetters next weekend.

According to Pregame.com, which tracks Nevada sports books, the Broncos are widespread 10-point favorites against the Chargers in next Sunday’s divisional-round matchup in Denver.

The Colts, meanwhile, are underdogs of 7.5 points at New England next Saturday night at most sports books monitored by the website.

The Colts and Patriots have not met this season. However, division rivals Denver and San Diego will be meeting for the third time in 2013. Moreover, Sunday’s matchup between the Chargers and Broncos will occur one month to the day that San Diego won at Denver . . . as 10-point underdogs.

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50 responses to “Colts, Chargers significant underdogs in divisional round”

  1. Even though on paper the Bengals might be the better team, I’m guessing the Pats would have much rather faced them than the Colts lol.

    And SD-DEN records don’t matter because it’s a divisional games. But I really don’t see the Chargers going into Denver twice in the same season and beating them.

  2. Colts may have shot their load on the big comeback win. Going to be hard for them to repeat that magic if the Pats get multiple scores up on them early in the game

  3. Surprising it’s that wide considering that the Chargers have had Manning’s number going way back into the Indy days.

  4. Team of destiny?

    The last four Super Bowl winners played in the Eagles’ home opener. The San Diego Chargers played in Philadelphia’s home opener this season.

    And now they’ve won a playoff game and advanced.

  5. might as well be 20 points….Manning and Co. will prove to the world that the Bolts don’t belong in the same league as the Broncos.
    The Chargers needed bad officiating,a team resting 20 starters and a 4 turnover performance by an uninspired team to even get a ticket to mile high.

    Denver 51
    san Diego 24

  10. Chargers +10 is highway robbery. They went into Denver and dominated them at the line of scrimmage. Not saying SD will win, but I don’t think they’ll lose by more than 10.

  16. Even as a lifelong Colts fan I do not see Belichick letting T Y Hilton be the difference. Other players will need to step up. Probably low-scoring. I’d take the 7.5 points.

  18. Ya I was pretty happy to see the chargers pull this win out. I really didn’t want to have to face the Colts. If we beat the chargers to go to the AFC championship, I’d rather play the Pats. Luck is the real deal. The smarts and accuracy of Peyton, Rogers arm strength, and RGIII’s athletism. It doesn’t even matter how trash his team is around him. down 28 points at the half and he comes back and wins it making it look seemingly effortless. 13years of Peyton now they get to watch this kid for another 15 years is just unfair. I can honestly say as a broncos fan that Luck is the best QB in the league right now. For Peyton to get his 2nd ring, they playoffs have shaped up perfectly so far for him and the broncos. Let’s hope NE and Indy beat the crap out of eachother next week.

  20. Colts were underdogs at home against the Chiefs even though they beat them in the regular season so I’m not surprised. They beat Den, Sea, won @SF, and @KC in the regular season and now have beaten KC again so they’ve proven they can beat anyone. I’ll take Indy.

  21. I prefer the Colts vs Pats match up over the Colts vs Broncos.
    That said, the Colts were one and done in PO’s last year and won game #1 of PO’s this year.
    That is an improvement over last and as a most of the time rational fan thats all I expected this year.
    Anything that they win from here on out is icing.

  26. Frostymugobeer your a CLOWN, 2 games this year split 1-1 total points DEN 48 SD 47 but now the Ultimate Choke artist known as P.Manning is going to beat us by 27. Get a CLUE!!!!!!!!!

  27. Broncos/Bolts game is on the coaches. If Denver were to lose next week, short of Manning suffering a serious injury, it will be the COACHES fault.They were unmotivated and out-coached last meeting. Denver is the superior team. Time to take care of business.

  28. I think the Chargers can beat the Broncos, but the Colts have a difficult game against the Patriots. The Colts have the tendency to fall behind, and New England is not Kansas City. With only one pass rusher, Indy will have a hard time slowing Brady

  29. Can’t wait to hear Brady and belicheck after that funny looking kid goes in there and beats them “we have to make more plays “. Then mumble mouth “they made more plays then us”. Go colts!!!!

  30. Hey Underdog teams. The Ravens were 9+ underdogs for every game outside of the WC round last year. We all know how that worked out.

    Show ’em how it’s done.

  31. I don’t think Denver is the superior team. They have a better QB, but their D is rather weak and their run game has been abused by teams allowing them to run instead of pass.

    SD had almost 3:1 TOP in the last meeting. They just took out the team that puts up 40 a game a home every week and their D is playing very well.

    Rivers may not be Manning, but overall the Chargers are hot and full of talent.

  32. I may sound crazy but I’d rather the Pats played the Colts instead of the Bengals. For starters I think the Chargers have an excellent chance of beating the Broncos again and getting the Championship game in Foxboro but I also think the Pats match up better against the colts.

    Brady has struggled in recent years in the playoffs against good defenses (Giants, Jets(2010) and Ravens) and they only put up 6 points when they played the Bengals earlier in the season.

    The Bengals with BJGE and Bernard also, on paper at least, have a much better running attack. Luck is pretty much the Colts best rusher. The strength of the Pats defense is the secondary and I expect TY Hilton to get a lot of attention from Talib and Mccourty.

    Luck is already a fantastic QB but after seeing the way Alex Smith took the Colts defense apart I’m hopeful Brady and the Pats will have a good day offensively.

    Of course its the playoffs and any team can beat you as we saw with the Ravens last year.

  34. Woo hop it’s time Denver! I gotta say I was hoping to see Denver play the colts then the Pats for the playoffs… A little revenge tour… But the Chargers won once in Denver this year, so I think its a little revenge that Denver will serve. Go Broncos!!!

  35. Well, they say that the team that lost last has the upper hand in the rematch. I think the Broncos win against the Chargers and I think the Colts take down the Pats. Broncos beat the Colts to go to the super bowl and Ersay has all kinds of time to tweet about what went wrong.

  37. I am in Vegas this week and plan on putting down some coin on the Chargers. Peyton in a cold playoff game against a divisional opponent who is playing loose and has nothing to lose. I LOVE Peyton – but this is the playoffs…

  38. Manning has proven that he can’t get past certain familiar faces in the playoffs. Obviously, Brady entirely owns him. But, Rivers is also perfect against him in the post-season.

    What’s more, Manning is simply setting himself up for a historic one-and-done, what with his record-setting season.

    That will be Manning’s great curse, when he finally retires with only the single ring. He’ll have all the individual records, but also the record for the most playoff loses (actually, he already has that).

  39. Home field may not be the big advantage it was once thought to be–except in Seattle. And even there, the home team is beatable. But weather will have an impact when Indy travels to New England. If it’s snowing, that gives a clear advantage to Brady. The Chiefs/Colts game was my favorite of the weekend, and I’d never underestimate Luck and Company. But they’re a dome team, and could struggle in blizzard conditions.

    The same would be true for San Diego if they wound up playing in a Denver snowstorm. They’ve proved they can beat the Broncos at home, but weather conditions can make a difference. I like Rivers, but you can never count out Peyton.

    Hoping for two great AFC contests next week.

  40. .
    @jumbojet

    Your Jets season has ended. You finished 8-8. Your coach is a national buffoon. Your quarterbacks either butt fumble or throw picks. You haven’t been to a Super Bowl since Richard Nixon manned the White House. However, your comments regarding the NFL coach who has more wins than any other franchise since 2001 are indicative of one devoid of all football knowledge.

    .

  41. Colts are playing with house money…A playoff win is success two seasons after that 2-14 fiasco. And the Colts have a knack for knocking off the big teams (but losing to teams they should beat). I think it’s a tight game, with the Colts winning at the end. But win or lose it has been a great season. And it’s fitting the Colts and Pats play again.

  42. jimjets says:

    “Can’t wait to hear Brady and belicheck (sic) after that funny looking kid goes in there and beats them ‘we have to make more plays’. Then mumble mouth ‘they made more plays then us’. Go colts!!!!”

    Too funny. You don’t care about watching playoff football; you’re just hoping the team that has won your division 11 out of the last 13 years gets beat. Why so green with envy when your team won one off the all-time great Super Bowls 46 years ago?

  43. Can’t really put to much stock into long range forecasts but it is supposed to be a high of 50 on Sunday in Denver. Perfect weather for a football game!!

  44. No way should SD be double-digit underdogs against the Broncos. The teams played two tight games this year, and SD physically dominated the Broncos in the last game. Rivers is also 2-0 against Peyton in the playoffs. Guess it’s time to go lay some money on the Chargers.

  45. As a Charger fan, I never thought they would make it this far in the playoffs. I know Denver is a better team on paper, but just to point out things can change in the playoffs. Remember, three of the four teams left in the playoffs are the only three teams that beat Denver in the regular season. Who knows the Denver offense better than Manning? There former Offensive Coordinator/Chargers Head Coach. It depends on which Charger team shows up for the game. The Broncos are pretty consistant, the Chargers are up and down. Just hope for a good game and Charger victory. However, if they lose, I am still proud of my Bolts regardless.

  47. Unless you didn’t see any Patriots games this year, you know that the Patriots will be next to impossible to knock off at home for any team, let alone a team with one decent receiver and a poor defense. It’ll take another miracle and Hilton won’t be open ever. Luck may be decent at come backs, but Brady is more battle tested this year than in many years and he is the best at it.

  48. Brady vs Manning in Denver ahhh you can smell the ratings.. Brady will beat up the Colts and Manning will destroy the Chargers easily.

  49. Love the fact that the Chargers enter another game huge underdogs! Best way to go into a playoff game in my opinion.

    Broncs are a great match-up for the Chargers. Rivers has done extremely well against Manning in these types of scenarios in the past.

    All the dooms-day prognasticators that predicticted the Chargers demise last week will be at it with greater intensity this week. Chargers just cleared their biggest hurdle today. I hope that Denver is as confident and prepared at the Bengals were.

  50. The Chargers had the only decisive victory this week.

    Every other team struggled.

    We also got out of it rather unscathed (except Hardwick, whose replacement looked awesome on the field).

    We own Peyton.

    We have recently owned the Broncos.

    We have their offensive coordinator from last year as our head coach.

    We are perfect against Peyton in the playoffs.

    Rivers is perfect in cold weather games this year (go figure).

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