The Los Angeles Chargers are 1-0 on the season after defeating the Las Vegas Raider 22-10 on Sunday.
Issues really feel totally different this yr for the Chargers with head coach Jim Harbaugh on the helm. Key gamers have signified their appreciation for what Harbaugh’s already completed that deserves respect.
“To have a man main the cost like that and a locker room that buys in and follows him, it is a special occasion as effectively for him to get his first win,” quarterback Justin Herbert mentioned, per ESPN’s Kris Rhim.
The Chargers completed the 2023 season with a 5-12 document and have targets exponentially bigger than that type of destiny this season. Harbaugh is coming off a nationwide championship win with Michigan, and he introduced a number of Wolverines employees members with him to Los Angeles, together with defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and director of participant efficiency Ben Herbert. The Michigan affect has been a constructive for the crew.
Defensive finish Khalil Mack, who had 1.5 sacks in Week 1, believes their win towards the Raiders, a crew that beat the Chargers 63-21 final season, confirmed how critical they have been making ready this offseason.
“It signifies what him and Herb and Minter and all people has been preaching,” Mack said, per The Athletic. “We’ve been shopping for in.”
The Chargers are shopping for in due to the artistic methods Harbaugh tries to make a degree. For instance, Harbaugh gifted the crew blue-collar work shirts, per Chargers defensive sort out Poona Ford. The shirt and the message should have labored for Ford, who wore the shirt to the stadium and would go on to have a game-sealing interception within the fourth quarter.
“I wore mine to the sport truly,” Ford mentioned, per Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg. “I feel Coach Harbaugh’s message was to get able to go to work. I really feel like right now we type of set the tone for what we need to be this season.”
Chargers security Derwin James Jr. thinks this could possibly be an incredible yr for the crew, in the event that they preserve doing what they’re doing.
“It may be one thing particular,” James Jr. mentioned. “If we simply preserve working and do not get uninterested in the small print and preserve shopping for in.”
Whereas Harbaugh deservedly receives a ton of credit score for his Chargers getting a Week 1 win, he is aware of the easiest way to proceed momentum in Week 2 towards the Carolina Panthers and past is to not pat himself on the again and direct the main target again on the athletes.
“The tradition’s already right here. Me and all the brand new guys, we stepped into it,” Harbaugh mentioned. “We are the fortunate ones. The tradition right here is figure.”
We’ll see if the working tradition stays a profitable tradition this season for the Chargers, who’re at present tied for first within the AFC West with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.