INGLEWOOD – As far as temperature checks go, Sunday’s 34-27 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals was a real fever dream for Chargers fans. A nerve-fraying, stomach-churning, toying, thrilling, beautiful mess.
The headline: The Chargers won their fourth consecutive game to improve to 7-3, notching two victories more than all of last season and doing it before Thanksgiving.
The subtext: They willed this win into existence after coughing up the entirety of the 21-point lead they’d staked themselves in the first half.
Even after things went from gorgeous turned gory, they had the grit to get through it: “Didn’t flinch,” Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Didn’t buckle.”
Bent, but didn’t break. Are the Chargers, refusing to succumb to Chargering? Saved this time by J.K. Dobbins’ 29-yard touchdown rumble with 18 seconds remaining.
What, were you worried?
Of course, you were.
A true measuring stick of a game, as Sunday night’s showcase was billed to be. It first reminded us that Justin Herbert can handle an offense as if it’s a joystick, and he’s playing a video game – on easy mode.
We watched as he zipped passes, threaded passes, cut through Cincinnati’s soft zone and made it all look so pretty, like an expert seamster.
He went into halftime having completed 10 of 14 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, having rushed for 58 of his 65 yards and having helped put his team comfortably – necessarily – ahead, 24-6.
Had fans debating whether he’s a top-five quarterback in the NFL, or in the top three.
Had his supporters preparing to hard launch his MVP campaign: This gauntlet the Chargers are facing, starting with Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals and followed next week by Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens and then, on Dec. 8, Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs?
Those guys’ teams’ defenses are who will have it tough because they have to face Herbert!
(Had me trying to come up with ways to use the best Herbert-themed fantasy football team names in newspaper sentences: “Herb Appeal” or “This Just In.”)
How about Herb Your Enthusiasm? Meanwhile, the Bengals were in their locker room making adjustments. Pumping one another up and preparing to pump the brakes on the Chargers’ offense.
After completing nine of his first 10 passes, Herbert connected on just 8 of 26 the rest of the way, throwing for only 118 more yards in the second half – when he also lost a fumble and just missed throwing a pick-six in the fourth quarter.
The quarterback’s Burrow and Herbert, the Nos. 1 and 6 picks in the 2020 NFL Draft were the headliners – but discerning fans probably fancied this game would be a test of the league’s stingiest defense (13.1 points per game, coming in) vs. the league’s sixth-most prolific offense (27.0).
It was all of the above and more.
This game also reiterated how big-time Burrows can be; he threw for 356 yards and three touchdowns and led the Bengals to 21 consecutive second-half points. That included a pair of touchdowns on fourth down and twice getting his team into go-ahead field goal position, only for Evan McPherson to miss attempts of 51 and 48 yards.
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But Herbert held it together, connecting at last with Ladd McConkey on a 27-yard pass that set up Dobbins’ game-winning touchdown run. Harbaugh’s postgame mantra after watching his team both score and concede a season-high in points: “We were at our best when our best was needed.”
And that’s what the Chargers need as they venture toward a more certain future, one where they win more often than not — and pull out victories from near-certain defeat. They can run hot and cold and still manage to maintain their equilibrium when the game is in balance.
If Sunday’s game against the Bengals was supposed to be a gauge of what the Harbaugh Chargers are made of, it was: They’re not going to be easy to beat.