Chargers mailbag: What will make this a successful season for Jim Harbaugh?

The Los Angeles Chargers are handling defeat for the first time in over a month. They lost to the Baltimore Ravens 30-23 on Monday night to drop to 7-4 on the season. That ended a four-game winning streak, and as coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game, the Chargers will be looking to “regroup.”

“We know what kind of team we are and what we’re capable of,” Harbaugh said.

Let’s dive into a few topics with some of your questions.

You ask. I answer.

It’s the mailbag.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Do you think if we make the playoffs as the sixth or seventh seed and then lose in the wild-card round, the season is a success? And if we miss the playoffs, the season is a failure? — @tuiterdelpiter

This season has already been a success for the Chargers. For me, gauging success in Year 1 of Harbaugh was never going to be about results. Instead, I was looking at the process. Harbaugh’s primary job was shifting the culture of an entire organization. He is a master at this specific thing. He has done it at multiple stops at various levels of football. And in my opinion, he has achieved this with the Chargers. How the rest of the season goes will not change what Harbaugh has already built in his first nine months.

The players are bought into the Harbaugh identity. His approach is hard — and maybe even impossible — to replicate because he is such a unique individual. He is unapologetically himself, and that authenticity breeds camaraderie and togetherness. A head coach’s primary job is to get players pulling in one direction with all their might. That has happened week after week with the Chargers. They are prepared for every game. They bring consistent effort. Harbaugh’s culture has unified this team in a way we have not seen since, probably, the early years of Anthony Lynn.

And so the foundation has been laid. That was the most important part of this season. The Chargers have been in every game they have played. Winning certainly helps reinforce the message, and the Cincinnati Bengals game, in particular, instilled confidence in some of the players who have dealt with Chargers collapses in the past.

I would also add that general manager Joe Hortiz has really proved his team-building approach. He has a good feel for how to build depth. The Chargers have gotten key contributions from some of these depth additions: rookie corners Tarheeb Still and Cam Hart, defensive lineman Teair Tart, edge rusher Bud Dupree, safety Elijah Molden. The list goes on. This has been a proof-of-concept season for Hortiz, and that bodes well for this regime, regardless of what happens the rest of the season.

With all that being said, I would be shocked if the Chargers do not make the playoffs. The Athletic’s Austin Mock gives them an 83 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason. I think they need to get to 10 wins to be safely in as a wild card. They have two winnable games to close the season against the New England Patriots and Las Vegas Raiders. A big development this season has been how the Chargers handle business against inferior opponents. That has not always been the case around here. They need to find one more win over the next four games: at the Atlanta Falcons, at the Kansas City Chiefs, vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and vs. the Denver Broncos.

The culture change is already cemented. A playoff appearance would turn this into a best-case-scenario debut season for Harbaugh and Hortiz.