Bank of America Stadium rises from the center of Charlotte’s Uptown district like a teal fortress. For Jim Harbaugh, the building evokes memories both good and bad.
There he played his final season as quarterback, going six games without throwing a pass for a team that went 1-15. But that losing season also convinced him to become a coach, and he returned to Carolina 12 years later to win his final playoff game as an NFL head coach.
Harbaugh made another happy — and historic — homecoming on Sunday, this time on the sidelines for the Chargers, who defeated the Panthers 26-3 before a mostly empty crowd of 74,000.
The return was historic, as just two weeks into the Harbaugh era, the Chargers are already rewriting the record books.
Read more: Jim Harbaugh’s long association with quarterbacks is a hit with Chargers’ Justin Herbert
By rushing for 131 yards, JK Dobbins became the first Chargers back — and the first AFC player in a decade — to start the season with two consecutive 100-yard rushing performances.
The team is 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 2012, five years before leaving San Diego. It was also the Chargers’ first win in Carolina and just their second in eight meetings with the Panthers.
While Harbaugh says he’s aware of the history, he’s not celebrating yet.
“Just take it day by day and keep attacking what you’re doing,” he said. “I think that’s how our guys approach it.”
Well, not everyone. For center Bradley Bozeman, who has won as many games this season as he did last season as a member of the Panthers, the kind of history the Chargers are making isn’t just about the past. It also bodes well for the future.
“We have a good chance to be special,” Bozeman said. “We started out 2-0, [but] You can’t look at the past and what you’ve done. You have to look to the future.
Read more: It’s a complex world for Chargers rookies adjusting to life in the NFL and the big city
“I don’t take it lightly at all. Wins in this competition are hard to come by.”
Certainly not when you play like the Chargers, whose balanced offense also got an efficient afternoon from quarterback Justin Herbert, who completed 14 of 20 passes for 130 yards and found Quentin Johnston for two touchdowns in the first half.
One of the league’s worst rushing offenses since Herbert joined the team in 2020. In two games under new offensive coordinator Greg Roman, the Chargers have allowed more yards on the ground (395) than through the air (274).
“Because we have a balance — running, passing, play-action — and everything in our arsenal, defenses have to play right up front,” said Herbert, who left the stadium with a limp after twisting his ankle late in the game. “We did a great job running the first couple of games. [But] “There is still a lot of room for improvement for us as an attack.”
The Chargers essentially sealed the game on their opening drive, going 67 yards in nine plays. The final pass was a 29-yard pass to Johnston, one play after an Eric Tomlinson fumble at the Carolina 24-yard line was ruled an incomplete pass.
Herbert and Johnston reconnected on a five-yard touchdown pass to double the lead with 4:16 left in the second quarter. Just over two minutes later, the Chargers increased the lead to 20-0 on a 43-yard Dobbins’ dash.
Dobbins — who has carried the ball just 100 times in the past three seasons for Baltimore because of injuries to his anterior cruciate ligament, meniscus, posterior cruciate ligament, hamstring and Achilles tendon — ended the run with a somersault over the goal line.
“That’s something I’ve never been able to do. I’ve always admired people who could do that,” Harbaugh said.
“To see him come back stronger, faster, quicker than he was before the injury is a testament to his will. A lesser man wouldn’t have been able to do what JK was able to do.”
Aside from the somersault, Dobbins said he has nothing to celebrate yet.
“We’ve got to keep getting better. That wasn’t our best,” he said. “We’re going to get better every week. We’ve worked hard for this. We have really good chemistry.”
Carolina showed some energy on the first drive of the second half with a 38-yard field goal by Eddy Piñeiro that made it 20-3. Cameron Dicker, who missed his first career extra point in the first quarter, doubled that tally with two field goals in the second half that determined the final score.
Read more: 🏈 Chargers-Panthers recap
If the Chargers’ hot start gave Harbaugh and Co. reason to be optimistic, the Panthers appear to be heading into another long season without a win. Carolina, which hasn’t had a winning record since 2017, has been outscored 73-13 in its two losses.
On Sunday, Carolina committed three possessions on its first four attacks, converted just one of 13 third-down attempts and was penalized nine times for 90 yards before the half-empty stadium cheered the team to the locker room.
Meanwhile, the Chargers left Bank of America Stadium with a piece of history, but they hoped to create more.
“Wherever the chips fall at the end of the season, that’s where the chips fall,” Bozeman said. “We’ll find out in December, January, where we’re at.
“So we just keep rocking and keep going.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
