The Chargers answered one question with their 26-3 victory Sunday over the Carolina Panthers. Yes, they could take care of business and dispatch a lesser team. But they left one unanswered and it might be another week or two before we actually know if they are a quality team.
Here’s what we learned, what we heard and what comes next after starting the season with a 2-0 record for the first time since 2012 by running through, over and around a Panthers team that lost almost every battle along the line of scrimmage in their second loss of 2024:
HOW GOOD ARE THEY?
The easy answer is that we don’t know after a 22-10 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers debut in Week 1 and their rout of the Panthers in Week 2. Neither the Raiders nor the Panthers are expected to finish the season anywhere near the top of the standings.
The Raiders did knock off the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, bouncing back from their loss to the Chargers in a big way. The Ravens (0-2) were expected to become a playoff contender by season’s end, and perhaps they still are considered to be an elite team by the pundits around the NFL.
Another answer is that the Chargers are a good, solid team capable of deploying a sound running or passing game that makes it difficult for opponents to figure out what’s coming next. No question, Justin Herbert can make the opposition look bad. But now so can J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards.
Dobbins torched the Raiders for 135 yards and one touchdown and the Panthers for 131 yards and one touchdown. Herbert hasn’t had to exert himself, although he has thrown three touchdowns with one interception in the wins over the Raiders and the Panthers. He threw only 20 passes Sunday, for instance.
Then there is the defense.
The Chargers haven’t given up a touchdown in seven quarters since the Raiders’ first-quarter TD in the season-opening game at SoFi Stadium. They swarmed the line of scrimmage in both games and made it especially difficult for Gardner Minshew II and Bryce Young to complete passes down field.
So, how good are the Chargers?
Let’s withhold judgment before pronouncing them contenders. They face the Steelers (2-0) on Sunday in Pittsburgh and then play host to the two-time Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (2-0) in Week 4 at SoFi Stadium. We should know a great deal more about the Chargers by then.
“It’s huge, but never too high, never too low,” said Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack, a 10-year veteran cautioning against expecting too much after a 2-0 start. “Just the understanding that we don’t want our high level of performance to drop off week to week. We want to continue to get better.”
DOBBINS’ COMEBACK
It often takes athletes at least one year to recover fully from an Achilles tendon tear like the one Dobbins suffered in Week 1 last season while with the Ravens. He proclaimed himself fully healthy after signing with the Chargers during the offseason, and so far he’s proved to be 100% accurate.
Dobbins made similar comments during the preseason, but he didn’t play in any of the Chargers’ three exhibitions, so he wasn’t able to state his case on the field until his first snap against the Raiders. After becoming the first Charger with back-to-back 100-yard games to start a season, he might be vindicated.
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“You don’t know when you come back from one of those things what it’s going to be like, when you actually stick that foot in the ground with a 300- or 350-pound guy tackling you with force,” Harbaugh said. “Big guys moving fast. You just don’t know what it’s going to be like to anchor down in pass protection.
“So, it’s just incredible, just an incredible testament to his physical athleticism plus the grueling rehab he went through. Plus, the mindset that it takes to be able to do that. … A lesser man wouldn’t do it, put it that way. A lesser man would not have been able to do what J.K. has been able to do.”
WHAT COMES NEXT
The Chargers face the Steelers in Pittsburgh after spending the week in Charlotte, North Carolina, cutting down on the team’s coast-to-coast travel and enabling them to bond further after their quality start to the season. The Steelers are 2-0 after a 13-6 victory Sunday over the Denver Broncos.