INGLEWOOD — One of these days, bro. One of these days.
But not this time. Nah, bruh. On Monday, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh fell to 0-3 against his big brother, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
Or 0-4, if you count John’s preseason victory over Jim’s San Francisco 49ers in 2014 along with the other wins that came in the regular season and then in Super Bowl XLVII.
Now John – with his 15 months and now four-game head start – can also brag about the 30-23 Monday Night Football victory in 2024, on their parents’ 63rd wedding anniversary no less.
John could, were he so inclined, crow about how effectively his Baltimore Ravens took care of Jim’s new team before a crowd of 70,240 at SoFi Stadium, where the Harbaugh bros. were the stars of the show, their pregame and postgame interactions recorded by a herd of photographers and cameramen.
Afterward “I just told him,” John said, “‘You’re a great coach and you have a great team, you know?’ And, ‘I love you.’”
“We said the same thing,” Jim reported to reporters. “I congratulated him on the victory and, ‘Love you.’”
Don’t expect John to do much rubbing it in, though. That’s his little brother, and he’s his biggest fan.
“Going against a team that’s this well-coached, by all their coaches and by my brother, Jim – best coach in the National Football League. What he’s done with that team, how hard they’re playing?” John said. “Hat’s off to them.”
This latest Har-Bowl wasn’t as emotionally taxing event as the one on Feb. 3, 2013, when they played for the highest stakes in their profession.
But there were real stakes.
John’s Ravens (8-4) were mighty motivated to bounce back from last week’s 18-16 loss to their nemesis, the Pittsburgh Steelers on their way to what they hope will be another Super Bowl.
And Jim’s work-in-progress Chargers are coming along in a real way – as John has seen happen before at Stanford, in San Francisco and at Michigan, before seeing it again in L.A.: “Jim understands you build teams around players’ strengths, and you build a team around players that love football … and he just leans into that and loves into that every single day with his guys. And I do believe that’s why they respond.”
“We’re building,” a deflated Jim said a couple of times Monday night, after his team lost for the first time in five games, falling to 7-4, because they were unable to stop the Ravens any of the three times they went for on it fourth down.
Because the Chargers’ receivers made the catchable uncatchable, with four drops.
Because they were unable to compensate for losing running back J.K. Dobbins to a knee injury in the first half, unable to come up with even a semblance of an answer for Ravens running back Derrick Henry, who trucked for 140 yards in 24 carries as Baltimore compiled 212 yards on the ground – the first team to rush for more than 200 against one of Jim’s teams in his four-plus NFL seasons.
“They played better football tonight,” Jim said. “But more importantly, to me, I know we’re building.”
They’re building structure. Building culture. Building excitement with a long-suffering fan base that’s getting its first taste of the Harbaugh Brand of Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind and loving it. In a shift, rowdy Chargers fans have dominated the crowd at SoFi Stadium for the past three games.
They’ve been loud, they’ve been fiery. Electric, enthusiastic.
And, on Monday, dejected.
Because, oh, brother. At times, it looked as if the Ravens were treating this matchup with their coach’s baby brother’s team like a game in the backyard.
Oh Henry, there was the Ravens’ broad-shouldered running back giving Chargers defenders piggyback rides down the field. And star quarterback Lamar Jackson palming the football and turning into a matador – “olé” – as defensive lineman Teair Tart came charging.
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Baltimore even went for it on fourth down on its own 16-yard line, for crying out loud.
But, John insisted, that wasn’t to toy with his baby bro. That was out of respect.
“The overriding thing was who we were playing,” he explained. “The idea that you just gotta try to hang on to possessions as long as you can, because they’re so good … their offense is so challenging and so good. That’s really the main reason. We just felt like we’re gonna need it.”
But one of these days, man, the laws of the universe have it that the younger brother will need to win one.
And then, once he gets one, we all know what usually happens after that.