It's Only Going to Get Worse...

...before it gets better. Right now the sky is falling. Peyton Manning went out and decimated the Ravens to the tune of 7 passing TDs last night and most power rankings now have the Chargers all the way down in the high 20s, having dropped a number of spots during the preseason despite the fact that it's, well, the preseason. And come this time Tuesday morning, there's a very good chance the Bolts will will be 0-1 and smarting from a nationally televised home field drubbing by the Houston Texans.

But take heart.

Peyton Manning can beat up on the Ravens all he likes, it's never going to get him back that awful performance when it mattered back in January. And these are not those Ravens. Look, I hate Ray Lewis, but a locker room leader like that is hard to replace. And I'm never going to believe a defense can get better by letting Ed Reed go. And once Michael Oher went down, the Ravens offense couldn't keep Peyton off the field. Peyton Manning is a big stat guy. That's his thing. But that record of 7 TDs hadn't been matched in 44 years. I doubt it's going to happen a lot more this season.

Power Rankings are crap before the real games start, and even then they're suspect. The nature of sports prognostication these days is that no one has any balls. These Chargers predictions should have been made last year, when these same "experts" all claimed we'd be duking it out with Denver for the division. When we didn't it suddenly became okay to poo poo the franchise.

None of these people have actually looked at what the Chargers have done, only at what they weren't able to accomplish last season. This team is better than that team. I believe by quite a bit. They'll end up surprising a lot of people who should know better.

Houston's probably going to beat on us. This line needs some real playing time together before they are going to gel, and Wade Phillips' defense is not a good proving grounds for them. And their balanced offense will probably give our untested young defensive players fits as well. But Houston is a very good team, with Superbowl aspirations. Losing to them won't sink the ship. I have us losing to them and still putting up 11 wins. I know that sounds outrageous, but I really like this team in a way I haven't liked a Chargers team in a long time, and I'll go down with that prediction or love watching it come to fruition.

So, maybe the sky is falling a bit right now, but it won't last. Like the ozone layer. The ozone layer is fine now, right?

Go bolts!!!