Bodog Beat

The San Diego Chargers are once again without running back LaDainian Tomlinson. (AI Wire Image)

San Diego running back LaDainian Tomlinson was injury-plagued last year in what turned out to be the worst season of his career, and the former NFL MVP couldn’t even make it through Week 1 without the injury bug catching up to him again.

Tomlinson, who vowed to bounce back this season and dispel the notion that NFL running backs trend way downward once they hit age 30, suffered a sprained ankle in the Chargers’ come-from-behind win against the Raiders on Monday night. L.T. hasn’t practiced all week and has been officially ruled out against Baltimore. That means Darren Sproles will take over as the featured back, with Michael Bennett also likely to get some work. In addition, the Chargers will be without starting center Nick Hardwick and possibly guard Louis Vasquez.

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Now, Sproles was very good last week against the Raiders. He replaced Tomlinson on pretty much every third down even before L.T. was hurt and had nine rushes for 23 yards but also caught five passes for 43 yards in addition to his three punt and five kickoff returns (one for 59 yards). His 5-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds remaining gave the Chargers the victory. But Sproles is a little guy (5-foot-6, 185 pounds), and it’s rather unlikely he can handle something like 15-20 carries a game (along with his kick-return duties), especially against the ferocious Ravens defense that owns the NFL’s longest current streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher: 36 games.

It was Baltimore’s offense that shined last week. The Ravens, who are 3-point underdogs this week on Bodog, had a team-record 501 yards in beating Kansas City. Second-year QB Joe Flacco looked tremendous, throwing a career-high 43 times for a career-best 301 yards and three touchdowns. When he has a TD pass in his young career, Baltimore is 10-2. By the way, San Diego’s pass defense was No. 31 in the league last year.

And it’s not like the Ravens abandoned the run last week, as Ray Rice rushed for 108 yards – part of Baltimore’s 198 yards on the ground. The Ravens had more first downs than the Chiefs had rushing yards (29), so that 38-24 score was very misleading.

With the Chargers’ offensive line in shambles, the Ravens’ defensive front should dominate. But San Diego QB Philip Rivers is 22-5 in his career at Qualcomm Stadium. Rivers will be throwing more than usual this week with Tomlinson out. The Ravens were 5-3 on the road last year and then won two playoffs games away from home.

San Diego and Baltimore have split six previous meetings.

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