The whole world got to see on national television Sunday night what the AFC has come to realize: the Los Angeles Chargers are emerging as a real power in the NFL. Less than a calendar year after finishing with the fifth pick in the draft and arguably the worst defense in football, the Chargers find themselves one of the best teams in the league. The arrival of head coach Jim Harbaugh and the health of Justin Herbert have immediately turned the fortunes of this team around. With a 7-3 start to the season, the Chargers have already won more games than they did a season ago, have a lot of room for improvement and are a real threat to win the playoff games in January. There couldn’t have been a better start to this season.
Their 34-27 victory over the Bengals was a clear sign of the progress they have made. They survived the relentless wrath of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins as the Bengals desperately tried to save their season. The Chargers defense looked great in the first half, but when it faltered, they were able to lean on their superstar quarterback, who is currently playing light football. Herbert made great throw after great throw as the Chargers were able to do what they wanted on offense for most of the game.
The Chargers are getting closer to a spot in the playoffs. They currently own the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoff race and with so many teams playing downright bad football, they could very well storm into the playoffs if they can win a few more games. After their win over the Bengals, there’s no reason to have qualifiers when talking about the prowess of this football team: they’re just good. The only concern is one crucial area the Bengals have exposed that shows the remnants of a team that finished 5-12 a season ago: their secondary.
Burrow, Chase and Higgins are capable of torching even the best defensive backs the league has to offer, so it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to see them make big gains at times against the Chargers’ coverage. This was an area where the Chargers hadn’t really been tested at this point: they were facing an offense with a truly explosive passing game capable of getting to the top of a defense. Now Asante Samuel Jr. out, possibly for the remainder of the season, Los Angeles will rely primarily on free agents and late draft picks for their rookie deals. That will likely come back to bite them in January, even though Jesse Minter has really done a fantastic job coordinating this defense every week. Horsepower is horsepower, and the Chargers struggled at times Sunday to keep up with the Bengals’ Lamborghini fleet.
The good news is that they still won and continue to win despite the weakness. Harbaugh has done nothing but build winners at all of his coaching spots, and the Chargers appear to be next on his resume. This season, in theory, should be the stage for the Chargers in the Harbaugh era. They still have players to develop and add to the roster that will make their staff more imposing in the near future and allow them to legitimately compete for a Super Bowl. Harbaugh and his franchise quarterback pose a real threat to the AFC West moving forward, even to the Chiefs, if this is what things look like in a rebuilding year.
Next up for these Chargers is a Monday Night Football battle against the Ravens, led by Jim’s brother John Harbaugh, in another HarBowl that will serve as a great benchmark.
