From Charlie Sinclair (@cmsinclar):
Charlie, the league has access to tape on Jim Harbaugh’s teams at Stanford, San Francisco and Michigan, so if anyone within said league was surprised in any way by what the Los Angeles Chargers brought to the table in Week 1, that’s on them. Sure enough, Harbaugh’s Los Angeles outfit executed a familiar script.
In the first half, the Chargers rolled up a grand total of 26 yards on 10 carries. With Justin Herbert at quarterback, and facing a 7–6 deficit, some coaches probably would’ve pivoted there and started throwing it all over the lot. Not Harbaugh. He doubled down on the run game and a belief that eventually, they’d break through, and it happened—to the tune of (excluding kneeldowns) 152 rushing yards on 14 second-half carries.
This is, quite simply, what Harbaugh’s always built as a coach.
The fact that we’re seeing this early is a good sign for the Chargers.
Playoffs? That’ll be tough in the AFC. But I’d be surprised if they’re not at least contending to get into the tournament come early January.
