INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It was happening again. A sequence of events so familiar it has become synonymous with the franchise itself. The Los Angeles Chargers were Chargering on national television, and nothing, it seemed, could stop yet another snowball from barreling downhill and destroying the dream of a more promising future. Not even Jim Harbaugh.
Justin Herbert, who had not turned the ball over in more than two months, fumbled away a possession and a likely two-score lead.
The Cincinnati Bengals scored three straight touchdowns.
A 21-point lead vanished into the cool November night.
“Stuff starts hitting the fan,” as edge rusher Joey Bosa put it.
What happened next is the clearest sign yet that these are not the same Chargers.
They blew the lead. But they did not lose.
They avoided collapse. They banded together and stopped the snowball. They rose from the mat and fought on.
The weight of historical failures was no match for the resolve and resilience Harbaugh has instilled in this team.
Want to know what a revamped culture looks like? It was right there, as J.K. Dobbins leapt into the end zone with 18 seconds remaining. The Chargers stared their demons in the face Sunday night at SoFi Stadium and emerged with a 34-27 win over the Bengals, their fourth in a row.
JK DOBBINS FOR THE SCORE
📺 | @SNFonNBC pic.twitter.com/M0RHEWbdUg
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 18, 2024
The roster is full of new players. But the ones who have been here for the failures, who experienced the 2022 playoff debacle in Jacksonville, who wear those stains? They know what this win means.
“I’ve been on the other side of it obviously. It’s demoralizing as a team,” said safety Alohi Gilman. “And yes, you would want the blowout wins, beat them up by 30, and that also brings a lot of confidence to a team. But to have a game like that where you give up a lead but you’re at your best when your best is needed and to pull off a win, I think it’s more of a key win than beating someone by 30, given the history.
“You go through some adversity and you win, it’ll push your team up to level up even more.”
“We’re trying to turn the worm around here,” said safety Derwin James Jr.
“There’s been a lot of games through the years where we’ve been put in that position and came up short,” Bosa said. “So I’m just proud of everybody.”
“I feel like we used to get in this situation and it was almost like a ‘Oh no, not again,’” said offensive lineman Trey Pipkins III. “That seemed like the mindset. But now it’s just like, we know we’re going to win. It’s a mindset shift it seems like everybody’s kind of made collectively that we don’t doubt it, we know what we can do, we trust ourselves, we trust our coaching.”
played our best when our best was needed pic.twitter.com/lpazRZI7dE
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 18, 2024
The Chargers dominated the first 35 minutes of this game. Herbert was electric in the first half, through the air and as a scrambler. On defense, the pass rush was suffocating. The Chargers led 24-6 at halftime. They extended that lead to 27-6 with a field goal on their second possession of the third quarter.
Then the Chargers unraveled.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow caught fire. He and the receiving duo of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins took over the game. Chase caught a fourth-down touchdown in the red zone to make it a two-possession game. On the next drive, Higgins got past the Chargers secondary for a 42-yard touchdown. After Herbert’s fumble in Bengals territory, Burrow found Chase on a loose play for a 17-yard touchdown to tie the game.
“I have to be better with the ball,” Herbert said.
Burrow’s escapability stymied the pass rush. The Chargers were dealing with injuries at cornerback. Cam Hart left the game with a concussion. Kristian Fulton was in and out as he managed his lingering hamstring injury.
Herbert missed two third-down throws in the fourth quarter, one to Quentin Johnston and one to Ladd McConkey. He was superhuman in the first half. He was mortal for most of the second half.
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The result felt inevitable.
On the sideline, though, there was no dread to be found. No wallowing. Just belief.
“Guys were just so focused on what we got to do next and our preparation that it didn’t even cross our minds, which is different from in the past,” Gilman said.
It used to be, “Uh oh, here we go again,” according to Gilman.
On Sunday night, “Nobody flinched,” Gilman said.
The Chargers needed two strokes of luck. This organization actually catching a break late in a game is firm evidence of the paradigm shift in progress. Bengals kicker Evan McPherson missed from 48 yards. On the next possession, he missed from 51 yards. The score remained tied.
“They definitely had the momentum,” receiver Joshua Palmer said. “But not for long.”
After a Chargers three-and-out, the Bengals took over at their own 16-yard line with 1:26 remaining. The defense came up with perhaps the biggest stop of the season. Burrow overthrew Chase on a go ball down the right sideline on first down. Fulton forced an incompletion on second down. On third down, linebacker Daiyan Henley surged through an open rush lane and hit Burrow was he was throwing. Incomplete. Punt.
“I had to take my shot,” Henley said.
Herbert regained his first-half form for one final drive. He connected twice with McConkey to move the Chargers into field goal range. Then Dobbins got loose for the go-ahead touchdown.
“We’re just resilient,” said McConkey, who set a career high with 123 receiving yards.
“There is magic going on,” Dobbins said.
The @Chargers got the ball with 45 seconds left.
Four plays later, they called game. #CINvsLAC pic.twitter.com/C7cOEzNt1A
— NFL (@NFL) November 18, 2024
James broke up a Burrow Hail Mary to seal the victory.
“We just found a way to finish,” James said.
“We got that grit,” left tackle Rashawn Slater said.
“Didn’t flinch, didn’t buckle, didn’t even stumble,” Harbaugh said.
The Chargers are 7-3. They are four games over .500 for the first time since 2018.
“Something’s being built,” Henley said. “We’re not the same team.”
No, the Chargers are not the same team.
This win confirmed that.
For one night, Harbaugh accomplished what was seemingly impossible.
He made Chargering a thing of the past.
“It just feels a little different right now,” Bosa said. “We have a shot at something special. When coach and everybody kind of keeps grinding that into us and talking about it, I think we’re starting to believe.”
(Photo of Jim Harbaugh and J.K. Dobbins celebrating his second-quarter touchdown: Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
