With their big win against the Patriots on Saturday, the Chargers have officially locked up a postseason spot in 2025.
This game was all Chargers all the way through. They first struck in the first quarter with a great grab from Derius Davis putting them up 7-0. The Bolts then started the second quarter with a sky-high Field Goal from Cameron Dicker. Derwin James recovered a fumbled pitch from Drake Maye, leading to Ladd McConkey’s first touchdown of the day. The Patriots scored their first and only points of the game on a big ball from Maye to Demario Douglas, a free play where Bud Dupree stepped offsides. The last points of the first half came from another Dicker Field Goal, and the Chargers trotted into the locker room with a 20-7 lead.
The First points of the second half came from Ladd McConkey, with his 40-yard touchdown catch acting as the nail in the coffin in Foxborough. Cameron Dicker hit another field goal to make it a 30-7 lead, and JK Dobbins provided LA with their last touchdown in his return to the field. The starters were benched, and a late Field Goal from the Bolts capped off their 40-7 victory against New England, clinching the second playoff appearance in the Justin Herbert era.
This was a great showing from the team as a whole. Of course, this Patriots team isn’t one to brag about beating. However, any 33-point win is a good one. If it weren’t for one bad play, the defense completely shut down any resemblance of an offense from New England. The offense got going with a 76-yard performance from JK Dobbins and McConkey, Joshua Palmer, & Quentin Johnston all having over 40 yards receiving. The big story for the Patriots’ secondary was Christian Gonzalez going down with a concussion early on, but even Gonzalez couldn’t have stopped the barrage from Greg Roman and Justin Herbert’s offense.
The offensive line had one of their best performances of the season, and it just gave Herbert too much time to make any true mistakes. Overall, this offensive performance does nothing short of sending a message to the rest of the AFC that the Chargers are a team to be taken seriously, even in a transition year.
With that being said, things will get serious sooner rather than later. A Broncos win on Saturday would fill out the AFC Playoff teams, and the race will be on. The Bolts face the Raiders in week 18, hoping to get the most favorable matchup in the Wild Card Round. Ideally, the Steelers and Ravens both lose their last games while the Chargers beat Vegas, and the Bolts will be heading to Houston to play the Texans in January.
This would be a big game, and more importantly a winnable one for Los Angeles. Avoiding playing Buffalo is the ultimate prize in this first round, and the Chargers have already done that. Now, they will prepare to face the Ravens, Steelers, or the Texans. All teams are formidable opponents, but the most important detail is that all of these teams view the Chargers to be just as lethal.
The biggest takeaway from this game and this season is without a doubt Jim Harbaugh’s pedigree. Harbaugh went from a National Championship football program that he rebuilt out in Ann Arbor to a five-win Chargers team that many thought would waste the career of Justin Herbert and any talent that would follow him. Instead, Harbaugh has come in and immediately taken the least talented roster the Bolts have put together in years to the playoffs, and a ten or eleven-win season.
This team could take a contender’s hopes away from them in January. However, whether they win a game in the posteason or not, this season was as successful of a campaign they’ve had in years. The Chargers are a team that will be taken seriously for the forseeable future, and they’re only going to get better this offseason and the next. It is only the first year of the Jim Harbaugh era in Los Angeles, but it feels like a brand new organization in every sense of the phrase.