The bye week is in the books, now comes the biggest stretch of the season for the Los Angeles Chargers …

Today’s Hottest Take: The Bolts need to blow out the Raiders

A win is a win, and all of them are hard to come by in professional sports, I get it. But sometimes a win isn’t enough, a statement is needed to send a message to all involved: players, teams, and fans alike. The Chargers play host to a very bad Las Vegas Raiders football team that's:

1. fresh off of firing their offensive coordinator

2. the first team to give a Browns starting QB a win in their first start since 1999

3. and starting a quarterback in Geno Smith who already has a foot out of the door.

The Chargers are off their bye week, which Harbaugh gave the entire Chargers staff and players entirely off as discussed last week.

They absolutely HAVE to beat this Raiders team convincingly to gain some respect back, considering how low the vibes have been since that nightmare in Jacksonville. I don’t want to hear about a divisional rivalry and how you can throw the records out the window. This is a very bad team vs a team that wants to be respected as a contender, send a message, and do a convincing job.

What You Need to Know: The Chargers need help from their "friends"

The Chargers put themselves in a sticky situation where every week matters, but it’s always nice to get some help from teams like the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, who put the Kansas City Chiefs in a hole, or Cincinnati upsetting Baltimore, both giving the Chargers some breathing room. But we’ve reached “Rooting Guide” territory, so here’s a Chargers fan’s picks for Week 13!

• The Tennessee Titans OVER the Jacksonville Jaguars

• The Indianapolis Colts OVER the Houston Texans

• The Buffalo Bills OVER the Pittsburgh Steelers

• The Washington Commanders OVER the Denver Broncos

Buffalo versus Pittsburgh is iffy: obviously someone has to win the AFC North–no matter how hard both Baltimore and Pittsburgh try to lose–and Buffalo is staring up at New England. Even with the Bills' tough schedule coming up, you expect them to make the postseason, while Pittsburgh almost being sent out of the wild card race (relative to the Chargers) would be an asset.

Obviously, Denver is leading the AFC West, and if the Chargers want to stay in striking distance, they need Denver to drop one, but those first three games are primarily focused on the wild-card race, even with the Chargers having the best odds to make the playoffs among current playoff teams.

Before You Go: Omarion Hampton’s return must wait

For weeks, we were told after the bye week, we could look forward to the return of the Bolts first-round pick, but alas, we must wait at least one more week: he was declared out Friday morning after being spotted in a non-contact jersey after being limited all week. The non-contact jersey was of note as Hampton was wearing normal practice attire throughout the week opening the door for fans to speculate a potential setback occurred, which is something that is definitely worrying considering the Bolts have two more weeks to activate the rookie.