Chargers vs. Ravens 2015 picks and predictions: Baltimore favored to get 2nd win of season

Two of the most disappointing teams in the league face off on Sunday afternoon, each looking for a spark to turn around their dismal seasons. The Chargers have lost three games in a row and are in a complete tailspin. Winless on the road this year, they’re making the cross-country trek to Baltimore to take on a desperate Ravens team that has just one win in its first seven games.

At 2-5 and in last place in the AFC West, San Diego’s once-hopeful season is nearly lost. Football Outsiders gives the Chargers a better chance to earn the first overall pick in next year’s draft (5.0 percent) than make the playoffs (2.8 percent).

If the Chargers are going to engineer a miraculous comeback, they need to commit to running the football. Quarterback Philip Rivers is putting up eye-popping numbers, but he can’t carry this team by himself. He has thrown for an NFL-best 2,452 yards through seven games, the third-most through the first seven games in NFL history. Rivers has dropped back to pass at least 50 times in each of the last three games, and San Diego has lost all three contests.

The Chargers have to find some balance to make their offense less predictable, and that starts with handing the ball to their trio of running backs -- Melvin Gordon, Branden Oliver and Danny Woodhead -- early in the game. None of the three backs have put up good numbers -- Gordon’s 3.9 yards per carry is the best of the bunch -- but they can’t simply ignore the run game if they want to end their losing streak.

Meanwhile, the Ravens might be the best 1-6 football team of all time. Sure, they have the fewest wins in the league, but you can hardly call them the worst team when their six losses have come by a combined 30 points. They are the first team since at least 1940 to lose six of their first seven games of the season, each by eight points or fewer.

The experts are banking on the Ravens finally figuring out how to win a game, as most are picking them to beat the Chargers on Sunday. Over at CBS Sports, seven of the eight panelists have Baltimore, and nearly all the guys at ESPN are picking them too. Our crew at SB Nation agrees, with only Joel Thorman taking San Diego.