EL SEGUNDO — Imagine Merrianne Do, but really charged up.
You remember the Chargers’ superfan who stole the show during her team’s loss to the Cowboys last season? So passionate with her fanning-out that clips of her on ESPN’s broadcast went viral and even had some people assuming she had to be a NFL plant or a paid actor.
She is not, of course. She’s a mom from Yorba Linda whose been plugged into the Chargers for nearly 20 years, one of those fans whose enthusiasm never wanes, the type of devotee the team is lucky to have.
And let her tell you, one game into the Harbaugh Era, it’s on and crackling.
“Oh my goodness, it’s so exciting right now! It’s electric!” she said this week. “It all started with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh as coach; I don’t think I’ve ever seen the whole fan base so united over the same thing.
“Because the coach gives us more of an identity,” she added. “He’s so humble but so gritty and ready to fight, and that’s the difference. We’re always hopeful, but this year, you can see all the pieces fit together … this is the turnaround time and a new Chargers era.”
Harbaugh’s hiring sent a current through a fan base, patient people who welcomed the proven winner and who lit up when they heard what he’s about.
In his introductory remarks, Harbaugh mentioned being “hungry” eight times. He promised a “tough” team five times. Three times he used the word “relentless” or “physical.”
But those are just words – pretty words, if you’re a football fan – and it helps to see them in action to really believe them.
That’s why Sunday’s ugly, grind-it-out affair over the Raiders was, in the eyes of these beholders, such a beautiful thing.
Why that 22-10 win feels like such a harbinger – Harbinger? – of what could come, continuing in Charlotte on Sunday against the already-hapless Carolina Panthers, victims of a 47-10 Week 1 shellacking by the Saints.
What the Chargers displayed Week 1, as they ground their rivals into submission on the scorching SoFi turf Sunday, was everything Harbaugh promised: A hungry team, playing tough, relentless, physical football.
“I think it was huge,” said Justin Herbert, the talented fifth-year quarterback who didn’t need to have his best outing – 17 for 26 for 144 yards and one TD – after missing most of the preseason with a plantar fascia injury in his foot.
“Not every game is gonna be pretty in the NFL. Obviously we want to do a lot better on offense, but the defense – it was awesome to see those guys play super tough, physical defense.”
Super-tough, physical defense, the man said.
That’s the stuff Chargers’ fans dream of, and it’s what Harbaugh woke up Wednesday morning thinking about. His first thought, he said: Khalil Mack’s fumble recovery against Las Vegas.
Mack plowed through the defense Sunday like a truck, tipping passes, recording 1½ sacks that to Harbaugh and anyone watching felt like three or four. He consistently overpowered the Raiders’ defensive front, and his pal Joey Bosa was right there with him, playing hungry, forcing a fumble and teaming with Mack to deliver four of the six hits on quarterback Gardner Minshew.
And the Chargers ground it out on the other side of the ball too; running back JK Dobbins introduced himself as the Raiders’ battery was dying, going for runs of 46 and 61 yards in the second half to secure the tone-solidifying win.
“At the game, you could feel it,” Do said. “Even though it was super-tight, you saw the fan base behind them and excited the whole time, knowing Coach is going to fight, Coach is going to adjust and the team is going to make something happen. I’m telling you, it was just electric.”
Harbaugh hasn’t heard much directly from fans like Do much since he’s gotten to work with the team; “I don’t get out that much,” he said.
But new general manager Joe Hortiz has jumped right in.
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Dressed up in a blue suit in seemingly 1,000-degree heat, Hortiz – whose own introductory news conference highlighted some familiar themes: getting “bigger, stronger, tougher” – waded into the sweat-soaked tailgating section to say hello before Sunday’s game, Do said.
“He was just walking through Thunder Alley, connecting with fans,” she said. “He was so warm … it felt like the fans mattered, and where we’re coming from and how hungry we are for the playoffs, for a Lombardi, like it matters.”
Their fans are feelin’ it. The Chargers’ first opponent was feeling it. Is one game in too early to suggest the Harbaugh Chargers are onto something?
Feels like it’s not.