The Los Angeles Chargers have won four consecutive games and eight of their last ten matchups. That's really good! They're still currently sitting 1.5 games back of the Denver Broncos in the AFC West. If the Chargers win, their game in Denver next week will be for the division crown.

The Houston Texans have won seven consecutive games and eight of their last ten matchups. That's also really good! They are sitting one game back of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC South. Were the Texans to beat the Chargers, and the Jaguars to lose to Philip Rivers' Indianapolis Colts, Houston would take over the top spot in the division.

Whatever happens on Saturday night when these two teams face off against each other at Sofi Stadium will ripple throughout the division and wild card races in the AFC heading into the NFL Playoffs.

I thought I would just group these together this week because it does a good job of previewing what is going to be a defense-heavy affair between the Chargers and Texans.

The Chargers are in the top 10 in....

And the Texans are better than them in every category with one marginal exception, they've given up a little more in the way of passing TDs than L.A. but they've also allowed far less rushing TDs.

So, yeah, this very well might be a matchup of the two best defenses in the NFL this season. Best of luck to the offenses.

The Chargers have been playing their best football over the last few weeks, despite Justin Herbert's broken hand, and it feels like they have finally figured out how to work around the guys that are missing due to season-ending injury.

Welp, now they're about to be missing more guys.

WR Derius Davis, S R.J. Mickens, OL Jamaree Salyer and DB Benjamin St-Juste have all been ruled out. OL Mekhi Becton, DT Teair Tart and RB Kimani Vidal are all questionable. Not every one of those absences would significantly change the math of this game, but some of them would, which means combined they're going to be a problem.

To say nothing of starting LB Denzel Perryman, who lost his appeal and will be suspended for the final two games of the regular season.

The top rusher for the Texans so far this season is Woody Marks, with 584 yards on the ground. He's been outrushed by Kimani Vidal, who has appeared in two less games than Marks and started the season as the third RB on the depth chart.

In the last few weeks, the Texans have leaned on Nick Chubb (who is not the same guy you remember) and Jawhar Jordan for a boom-or-bust ground game that is more often than not the latter. It's possible that they'll try to fire it up with Perryman out, but if the Texans can't get the ball moving (they're 28th in yards per carry) expect the Chargers pass rushers to pin their ears back and force a turnover or two.