{"id":475530,"date":"2025-12-27T19:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T19:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475530\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T19:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T19:22:13","slug":"5-final-thoughts-ahead-of-chargers-texans-in-week-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475530\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Final Thoughts Ahead of Chargers-Texans in Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chargers are set for their regular-season home finale against the Houston Texans<\/a><\/strong>. Kickoff is at 1:25 p.m. (PT) from SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Chargers-Texans betting line<\/a><\/strong> shows the Bolts are slight favorites on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Here are five final thoughts ahead of Week 17.<\/p>\n

A pair of the AFC’s hottest teams are ready for a Week 17 showdown.<\/p>\n

The Chargers have clinched a playoff spot<\/a><\/strong> entering the penultimate week of the regular season, and have won seven of their past eight games to get to 11-4.<\/p>\n

The Texans, meanwhile, have rolled off seven straight wins to get to 10-5 on the year.<\/p>\n

And both teams have plenty to play for in Week 17.<\/p>\n

While the Chargers can’t clinch anything Saturday, a win keeps them alive for both the AFC West and the No. 1 seed in the conference.<\/p>\n

“We’re playing for everything \u2026 the [AFC] West, the No. 1 seed \u2026 it’s all attainable and within our own power,” Troy Dye said.<\/p>\n

“As long as we do what we’ve been doing, stacking one week after another and worrying about this week in itself, we’ll be in a good place come Saturday night,” Dye added.<\/p>\n

The Bolts will capture the division with wins against the Texans and Broncos to close out the regular season.<\/p>\n

But Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh<\/a><\/strong> knows his team needs to secure one win before they can get two.<\/p>\n

“It means that this game Saturday against the Texans is the most important game of the year,” Harbaugh said. “Getting guys fresh, getting guys ready, getting guys prepared is top of mind.”<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty simple to look at and not hard math to figure,” Harbaugh added. “So, this week, this game, the most important one of the season.”<\/p>\n

Simply put, the Chargers will simply be focused on the task at hand against a Texans team that can clinch their own playoff spot with a win.<\/p>\n

“It’s been mentioned, but I don’t think it’s something guys are focused on,” Justin Herbert<\/a><\/strong> said of the Chargers AFC West chances. “I think it’s really a week-by-week thing. We understand that we’ve got a very good opponent coming to town this week and we got to handle our business this week.<\/p>\n

“If there’s any hopes of doing that, it starts this week,” Herbert added. “Over the past couple of weeks, that’s been the mindset of we’re going to attack this week, we’re going to do everything we can to focus on this game and we’ll see what happens after.”<\/p>\n

Chargers Defensive Coordinator Jesse Minter added: “The No. 1 thing this time of year is not to worry about what the game means, this that, what it could do if this happens, if this happens. It’s a one-game season and every opportunity is like you’re trying to peak every time you take the field this time of year.”<\/p>\n

Saturday’s matchup between the Chargers and Texans is one of just three across the league in Week 17 featuring teams with double-digit wins.<\/p>\n

It’s a battle of AFC title hopefuls and could be a potential playoff rematch. But the Bolts know that the possibility of a massive Week 18 game won’t be possible unless they walk away with a win at home.<\/p>\n

“You have to focus on the Texans. It’s a one-game season, one-week season,” Khalil Mack said. “Just focusing on them and trying to get the win by any means.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chargers are set for their regular-season home finale against the Houston Texans. Kickoff is at 1:25 p.m.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[213457,49467,98093,51,11822,49987,213458,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-475530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-25-reg-17-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-articles-5-takeaways","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-homepage-cp","13":"tag-homepage-headlines","14":"tag-houston-texans-at-los-angeles-chargers-2025-reg-17","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115793163158877885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}