INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The genius of Jim Harbaugh is rooted in simplicity. If you are around the Los Angeles Chargers coach long enough, you are guaranteed to hear his pet sayings dozens upon dozens of times. He will recite them to the public. He will recite them to his team. He will ask you if you have heard them before. If you say yes, he will recite them anyway.
The mistake is writing off these sayings as coach speak. In reality, they are his special sauce.
Harbaugh repeats one of these cliches most often: Have your best when your best is needed. It is so obvious. It is so cliche. But it also distills a key pillar of Harbaugh’s desired team identity down to eight words. So he says it, and he says it, and he says it. And through this mind-numbing repetition, Harbaugh achieves his goal. He builds unflappable belief. He builds resilience.
The most recent and most emphatic proof was on the field Sunday at SoFi Stadium. The Chargers beat the Denver Broncos 23-20 to improve to 3-0 on the season. They are in first place in the AFC West. All three of their wins have come against division opponents. They have started 3-0 for the first time since 2002, the season after Harbaugh, a former Chargers quarterback, retired as a player.
“There’s gravel in the gut,” Harbaugh said of his team.
The Chargers trailed by 7 points late in the fourth quarter. It felt like a game that was slipping away. The Chargers offensive line could not handle the Broncos defensive front, one of the best units in the league. Quarterback Justin Herbert had been hit 13 times, including five sacks. A Chargers defense that was brilliant in Week 2 had been uncharacteristically leaky, particularly in the deep part of the field. Even the Chargers special teams had slipped up, as returner Derius Davis fumbled a kickoff return in the third quarter that led directly to 3 Broncos points.
It was in this moment that the Chargers needed to find their best, to search for “what’s inside,” as Harbaugh put it. Herbert and the offense took over at their own 24-yard line with 5:08 remaining. On a third-and-10, Herbert dropped back and had a clean pocket. He fired over the middle and connected with receiver Keenan Allen on a dig route. Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga body-slammed Allen after the catch, drawing a 15-yard personal foul flag. The Chargers were rolling.
Two plays later, Herbert recognized a blitz and dumped to Hampton in the flat. Hampton surged down the right sideline for a 22-yard gain. After a completion to Allen, the Chargers faced a second-and-6 from the Denver 20-yard line. Herbert took the snap, and pressure, again, came immediately. Denver defensive lineman Zach Allen beat left guard Zion Johnson. Allen, at 285 pounds, had a clear run at Herbert. Allen attempted the tackle, but he bounced off the Chargers quarterback.
Herbert escaped to his left. Edge rusher Nik Bonitto, who already had two sacks, was closing in. Herbert did not have time to reset. He threw off his back foot, off-balance, his right arm colliding into Bonitto on the follow-through. Keenan Allen was in the end zone, breaking to the back corner, with cornerback Riley Moss in coverage.
“I put my hands out there, and it kind of just stuck to my hands,” Allen said.
“The defender wasn’t looking,” Herbert said. “That’s advantage Keenan.”
Touchdown. Tie game. Herbert took a hit from Bonitto on the play. It was the 14th time Herbert was hit, the most hits he has taken in a single game in his career, according to TruMedia.
“That man can paint the field with whatever he wants to do with that ball,” linebacker Troy Dye said of Herbert.
On the ensuing kickoff, cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor and edge rusher Caleb Murphy beat their blocks and combined to tackle returner Marvin Mims Jr. at the 22-yard line.
The defense then forced a three-and-out. Dye chased Broncos quarterback Bo Nix out of bounds on first down for no gain. On second down, safety Tony Jefferson sniffed out a screen pass to J.K. Dobbins, dropping the running back for no gain. On third down, Nix overthrew receiver Courtland Sutton down the left sideline.
“We can always lean back on this game when the going gets tough down the road,” Jefferson said.
Chargers safety Tony Jefferson delivers a hit to Broncos QB Bo Nix in L.A.’s 23-20 win over Denver. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
Herbert and the offense took over again at their own 32-yard line with 1:43 remaining. He was more surgeon than quarterback on this drive. Two consecutive completions to rookie tight end Oronde Gadsden, who fought through contests and contact on both catches. Gadsden was active Sunday for the first time in his NFL career. Herbert then found Allen on an out route. Two Hampton runs later, receiver Ladd McConkey won on a slant route to move the Chargers deep into Cameron Dicker’s field goal range.
“We just kept fighting until the end,” McConkey said.
The Chargers ran down the clock after Herbert gained 2 yards on a sneak. Dicker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, made the winner from 43 yards.
“I ask to be in this position,” Dicker said. “This is what I want to do.”
There are moments in seasons that cement a team’s identity. Players in the Chargers locker room still talk about the win over the Cincinnati Bengals last season. The Chargers blew a 21-point second-half lead, only to respond on the final drive of the fourth quarter with a winning touchdown.
“As you win those games, it changes the narrative,” right tackle Trey Pipkins III said last week. “As that keeps happening, that confidence in those situations just builds and builds and builds.”
The Chargers tapped into the belief in the fourth quarter Sunday. Pipkins was in and out of the game with multiple injuries. Right guard Mekhi Becton left in the first half with a concussion. Running back Najee Harris suffered what preliminary tests indicated to be a torn Achilles in the first half. Herbert took hit after hit after hit.
“I don’t think anyone in our unit, on the offense, on the whole team in general, doubted that we were going to have an opportunity to win that game in the end,” Johnson said.
The Broncos scored 17 unanswered points in less than four minutes of game time from the end of the second quarter into the third quarter.
“No matter what happened,” edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu said, “we kept believing.”
“Being resilient,” said safety Derwin James Jr., whose four tackles for loss were the most by a defensive back in a game since 2016, according to TruMedia.
Standing at the lectern after the win, Harbaugh claimed he could not find the words to adequately describe his emotions.
“I wish I had a better vocabulary,” he said.
His words, in truth, are perhaps his greatest asset.
(Top photo of Justin Herbert: William Navarro / Imagn Images)
Source link
