The Los Angeles Chargers have come a long way since their last game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Jim Harbaugh is back, and his Bolts’ 22-10 season-opening win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday stood as a symbol of how quickly times have changed from one rivalry game to the next.
“The culture is already here,” Harbaugh said after the game. “Me and all the new guys I think have really stepped into it. We’re the lucky ones. This is a great bunch of guys. It’s a good culture here, it’s work, they ask no quarter they get no quarter. They’re everything you want. The team is important.”
When last these AFC West rivals clashed, the Raiders pummeled the Chargers by a score of 63-21 in Week 15 of last season, leading to Brandon Staley’s dismissal as Bolts head coach the next day. Harbaugh followed by leading Michigan to a national title before taking the Chargers’ reins. His first game in L.A. saw the Chargers allow 53 fewer points than when they last played the Raiders, the defensive shining in comparison to last year’s travesty.
Of course, Harbaugh taking over is about more than just one game.
Channeling Frank Sinatra as he always has, Harbaugh is going to do things his way.
Quarterback Justin Herbert had just 144 yards passing, but the Chargers won by 12 points.
“Justin Herbert threw for 100-and-whatever [yards], he doesn’t care,” Harbaugh said. “Derwin James, just wants to win. Khalil Mack just wants to win. These guys are winners. What was being done here before, I feel like I stepped into that, am the lucky one stepping into this culture.”
They leaned on a running game that saw a rejuvenated J.K. Dobbins rush for 135 yards and a touchdown in his Chargers debut after four injury plagued years with the Baltimore Ravens.
Moreso, the Chargers defense, which features plenty of the same talent from a season ago had four sacks after recording just one in last year’s Dec. 14 throttling in which the Raiders had a red zone TD percentage of 100. This time around, Las Vegas ventured into the red zone just once and came up empty during a game in which L.A. had three takeaways. The Chargers had none in last season’s loss. The differences from that game to this were clear, from the sideline to the field.
Winning season openers is nothing new for Harbaugh, of course. He’s now 5-0 in his career after winning all four of his Week 1 games with the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-2014.
He memorably turned around a 49ers franchise that went eight years without a winning season or playoff berth. Now he’s aiming to do the same for a Chargers squad that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2018 and is coming off a 5-12 campaign.
The work begun long ago, but it paid off with a Week 1 win.
“They’re hard to get,” Harbaugh said. “These are hard to get. Everybody in that locker room knows it, as do I, that it is really hard to win a game in the NFL. I just take my hat off to, really, everybody in the organization, especially those that have been here doing the dirty work.
“I can say this on behalf of all the new guys that joined the organization this year: We are the lucky ones. It’s just a tremendous job with this entire organization that these players have been doing. I think you saw that today. That kind of leadership that comes from those that have been here and been doing it.”
Who’s got it better than Harbaugh and the Chargers? Well, not many after the Bolts came out winning to kick off 2024.
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