How did we land on this powder-blue paradise?
There’s no assure the Chargers will go via the gate of golden alternative, however this 2-0 group has sawed the lock off the latch.
With Sunday’s dwelling opener towards Denver, the Chargers have the prospect to go 3-0 within the AFC West with every week to go in September. That’s unparalleled. The final time this franchise opened the season with three consecutive division video games was 1988, and people Chargers stumbled to a 1-2 begin.
These Chargers may very well be 3-0 for the primary time since 2001 and are heading right into a softer a part of their schedule.
However how did it occur? Why did the NFL arrange the Chargers schedule to go Chiefs, Raiders, Broncos when that form of rollout is so uncommon?
Let’s rewind the tape.
Why did the Kansas Metropolis recreation wind up in Brazil?
The league had the Chargers internet hosting a recreation in São Paulo, and due to the space, it solely made sense to make it an opener. (Simply because the Rams will open subsequent season in Australia.) The group can “protect” two dwelling video games and the league received’t contact these, so the Chargers selected Washington and Minnesota. Pittsburgh couldn’t go to Brazil, as a result of the Steelers have already got a global recreation in Dublin, and it couldn’t be Philadelphia, both, as a result of the Eagles opened in Brazil final season.
The NFL wished to observe up that Packers-Eagles matchup with one thing equally spectacular, in order that they wanted the most important opponent to pair with the Chargers, particularly with this being the primary YouTube recreation. Nobody has extra sizzle today than Kansas Metropolis.
From the Chargers standpoint, they obtained the Chiefs on a impartial discipline — SoFi Stadium is just about a impartial discipline anyway — they usually had been making their largest division rival fly 12-plus hours to and from. Not a perfect approach for anybody to begin the season.
Jim Harbaugh’s group performed an incredible recreation, beating the Chiefs for the primary time since 2021 and placing a highlight on quarterback Justin Herbert, who was phenomenal. Not solely that, however they handed Kansas Metropolis an unimaginably lengthy flight dwelling to arrange for a Tremendous Bowl rematch with Philadelphia, which they misplaced.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert fist bumps coach Jim Harbaugh earlier than a win over the Raiders on Sept. 15.
(Ian Maule / Getty Photos)
Goal 1: Verify.
The NFL would moderately not have a group make an extended flight again from a global recreation solely the hit the street once more the next week, however that’s what the Chargers needed to do. There was a Chris Brown live performance at SoFi Stadium on the Sunday of Week 2, so it labored out higher to have the Chargers again on the street.
The fairest resolution was to present the Chargers their shortest street journey, to Las Vegas, plus give them an additional day to arrange by making it the second half of a Monday night time doubleheader. Allegiant Stadium, dwelling of the Raiders, was in use that weekend for the Terence Crawford-Canelo Álvarez combat.
Once more, Harbaugh had his group ready and the Chargers assembled a defensive masterpiece towards the Raiders, breaking apart 15 passes and placing Geno Smith below near-constant strain.
Goal 2: Verify.
Now comes Denver, a membership lots of people see as one of many league’s shock groups. There’s an attention-grabbing connection between Harbaugh and Broncos coach Sean Payton, and never simply that they had been born six days aside. Harbaugh, a star quarterback at Michigan, was a first-round choose of the Chicago Bears in 1987, a yr when NFL gamers went on strike. Chicago’s alternative group was nicknamed the “Spare Bears” and Payton was the quarterback of that fill-in squad.
It was extra random that the Broncos wound up being the opponent in Week 3, besides that the league wished to place the Chargers’ video games towards Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in prime time. In order that restricted the alternatives.
No person at The Bolt is complaining now. What appeared to be a treacherous begin may very well be a turbo increase for a franchise heading right into a stretch that features the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans, who’re mixed 0-6. Something can occur and fortunes of franchises can flip immediately — oft-struggling Indianapolis is 2-0, for example, and has but to punt as soon as — so wanting too far sooner or later is silly. However that’s what networks need to do, and there’s a variety of buzz proper now that the Chargers are going to be a group to observe as we get deeper into the season.
That matches Harbaugh’s profile, too, as a result of his groups have a historical past of enhancing in his second season.
With the brand new Nielsen methodology, which takes a much more complete sampling of what Individuals are watching, it’s more and more necessary for the NFL to do effectively in massive markets. The league must be delighted, then, that each the Chargers and 2-0 Rams are enjoying so effectively. The one different season when each franchises had been 2-0 on the identical time was 2001, when the St. Louis Rams made it to the Tremendous Bowl earlier than dropping to a younger quarterback named Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Each the Rams and Chargers have excellent quarterbacks, and curiously, Matthew Stafford went 12 seasons in Detroit earlier than lastly profitable a playoff recreation, in his first season with the Rams. Herbert, in his sixth season, has but to win a playoff recreation.
Each groups have top-notch defenses.
It’s absurdly early to make end-of-season predictions however this a lot is ready: SoFi Stadium will play host to its second Tremendous Bowl subsequent season.
Is a colossal turf conflict within the playing cards?
With that in thoughts, possibly the Chargers and Rams are peaking too early. They actually hope so.
