It is no secret that the Chargers have a tough month ahead. They will face the Bengals, Ravens, Chiefs, Falcons, and Buccaneers before their December 22nd matchup against the Broncos. Their warm up against the losing teams is over, and they will need to be playing their best football to have a winning record through this stretch. Since all of their wins so far have come against teams with losing records, it is a fair criticism to say that the Bolts aren’t as good as some think. While this is understandable, it isn’t true. This isn’t true because there are things that carried the Chargers to those big wins that could help them take down even the best in the league.
Staying disciplined is the most important thing to follow heading into this Bengals matchup. The Chargers are near the bottom of the NFL in penalties, a place every team wants to be. Aside from one or two games, the Chargers have remained very disciplined and have helped use it to play football without any major mistakes. Penalties will come back to bite them against the best teams, and winning the penalty battle in each game will be very important to winning. Unfortunately, the Bengals and Chiefs are near the bottom of this list, so it could be a challenge to win those games when it comes to penalties. However, the Ravens have the most penalties in the league this year by far, so it’s not like they’re going against perfect teams for the next month.
Similarly to discipline, coaching will be instrumental to the Chargers making a run in these games. The Bolts have been blessed with one of the best coaching staffs in the league this season. After years of poor coaching, this team needs to use their coaching to their advantage. Jim Harbaugh will be the clear-cut better coach in every single one of these games except the matchup against Andy Reid’s Chiefs. If Harbaugh can use his years of experience along with coaching prestige to outcoach the other teams, it will give the Chargers a real shot in every single game. Los Angeles may not have the roster the Ravens or Chiefs do, but with Jim Harbaugh at the helm, anything is possible.
Of course, Jim Harbaugh is not the only star on his staff. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has turned one of the most disappointing units in football into the best defense in the league. Touching back on mistakes, Minter’s defense has been near flawless. The only big mistake in memory was not putting a safety deep on Calvin Ridley’s deep post-touchdown. Aside from that, Minter has not made any mistakes that are hard to watch in hindsight. Especially against high-powered offenses, the defense will be put to a major test week after week.
That leads to the MVP of this team, Justin Herbert. Herbert has been playing at a career level all season, one of the main reasons this team is as successful as it is. Herbert has the 11th best QBR in the league this season, with 11 touchdowns and only one interception. Justin is playing his peak football in this Greg Roman offense without even being the main focus for a large portion of the campaign. Now that he has more trust in his young receivers, he is airing the ball out more and completing a lot of those passes. If Herbert continues to play at this high of a level, the Chargers will take a few of these games and he could even see himself as a legitimate MVP candidate.
The RB group is also a big piece of this run. With the return of Gus Edwards the Chargers RB room looks as strong as any committee in the league. JK Dobbins has looked like one of the better backs in football as the RB1, while rookie Kimani Vidal could be the future of the run-game. Add in Gus Edwards who looked very solid in his return vs. the Titans, and Greg Roman now has three serviceable RBs to choose who to feed on any given day. Since the offense is run through these guys, they will be crucial to their success. Setting up the run-game is what opens up Herbert’s arm, and with a fully healthy RB group, fans could see that be the case more than ever.
Of course, the big buzz of the offseason was the offensive line. Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh opted to go with Joe Alt in the first round of the draft, which has proved to be the right pick for them. The pass protection has been much better this year, and the receivers have been good enough to justify going with more protection for Justin Herbert. While Alt and Rashawn Slater have been and will be elite all season, the big question is the interior line. Trey Pipkins, Bradley Bozeman, and Zion Johnson are holding down the fort on the inside, and it has been an up-and-down season for them. There have been games where the inside collapses on the backfield and things can’t get done as a result. With that being said, their success will be crucial to the success of this offense. The better the protection on the inside, the better it will be for Justin Herbert’s body and the run game as a whole.