NFL Winners and Losers: Jim Harbaugh is already working his magic with the Chargers
It should have taken Jim Harbaugh a little bit of time to turn the Los Angeles Chargers around.
They had an interesting roster, but not one that really fit the style of play Harbaugh prefers. And the Chargers hadn’t won anything of note in a long time. They also needed to let plenty of veterans go this past offseason due to salary cap reasons.
On top of it, Harbaugh hadn’t been in the NFL for nine seasons. The game completely turns over in that amount of time. For anyone else, that alone would have needed an adjustment period.
But it’s clear, and has been for a while, that Harbaugh is one of the best football coaches in the world. He’s proving it again with the Chargers. The Chargers dominated the Cleveland Browns 27-10 on Sunday to improve to 5-3. They get the Titans (2-6) and Bengals (4-5) the next two weeks at home and can make a move toward taking a big lead in a relatively weak AFC wild-card race.
Be cynical all you want about beating the Browns, but it’s the same Cleveland team that beat the Baltimore Ravens a week ago. And they had no chance against the Chargers.
The Chargers took advantage of the Browns' mistakes, which happens when a team is well-coached. Two badly blown coverages by the Browns led to two long Justin Herbert touchdowns. That was all the Browns needed. The defense took over after that, making Jameis Winston look like the mistake-prone quarterback we're used to.
Harbaugh’s method is fairly old school. He wants to run the ball and play defense, even with a talented quarterback like Herbert. That’s what led the University of Michigan to a 15-0 record and national title last season. Herbert has been good, and was just about perfect Sunday, showing that maybe he can be more efficient if he's not asked to do everything. Harbaugh's way is working again in the NFL, despite plenty of reasons to believe it might take him some time to get things going. Imagine what he’ll do with a couple more offseasons to build up the roster. Maybe the Chiefs (7-0) will finally have a challenger in the AFC West.
The Chargers have been mostly irrelevant since moving from San Diego to L.A. The only things they were known for was weird ways to lose games and perennial underachievement. That will change under Harbaugh. And quicker than it probably should have.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 9 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Resurgent, resilient Rams: Give Los Angeles plenty of credit for rallying back this season. The Rams went from being rumored sellers at the trade deadline to three straight wins and a 4-4 record. Maybe they’re buyers now.
Sunday’s win was a good one, considering how often they looked to be finished. They trailed 13-3 on the road against the Seattle Seahawks. They lost star receiver Puka Nacua, who was ejected for throwing a punch. They allowed the Seahawks to tie the game in the last minute to force overtime, then lost the coin toss to start overtime. But the Rams got a massive fourth-down stop of Kenneth Walker III in overtime and then Matthew Stafford hit Demarcus Robinson for a one-handed, 39-yard touchdown for the walkoff winner. The Rams won 26-20.
They got some help in regulation. Geno Smith threw two awful interceptions deep in Rams territory, one into the end zone that was returned 103 yards by safety Kamren Kinchens for a touchdown. Shortly after, following a Seahawks blocked punt, Smith threw another wild interception to Kinchens at the Rams’ 7-yard line. Even though Smith made some nice plays to force overtime, his mistakes ultimately were too much to overcome.
The Rams are fine with it. They needed a win to keep their momentum going, and got it. They can start to feel like potential playoff contenders now. It’s clear they’re not going to give up.
Detroit Lions, inevitable division champs: The NFC North is the best division in football. That’s what makes the Lions’ lead in it so impressive.
The Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings are Detroit’s two contenders for the division crown — the Chicago Bears are proving they’re not ready yet — and the Lions have road wins over both of them. The Lions smacked the Packers in a 24-14 win. At Lambeau Field, they thoroughly outplayed a very good Packers team in a rainstorm. They're 7-1 after that win.
The Lions should cruise to a division title. They look like the best team in the NFC. The bigger debate might be if they’re the best team in the entire NFL.
Tyler Bass: We can't say Bass is forgiven for missing a key field goal last postseason against the Kansas City Chiefs. But Bass was a hero on Sunday.
Bass, who had missed an extra point earlier in the game, nailed a 61-yard field goal with five seconds left to beat the Miami Dolphins 30-27. The Bills were in that spot only because of a horrible unnecessary roughness penalty by Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer on a third-and-9 incompletion in the final minute, when Poyer launched himself helmet first at rookie Keon Coleman. That kept the Bills' drive alive and helped give them just enough yards for Bass to try the long field goal.
The Bills (7-2) are going to run away with the AFC East. They might clinch it before December. Bass' long kick ended any Dolphins dreams of becoming relevant again this season.
Joe Burrow: Not that anyone should have been questioning it, but Burrow reminded everyone he's one of the NFL's best quarterbacks on Sunday.
Burrow carved up the Las Vegas Raiders in a 41-24 win on Sunday. He had five touchdown passes, tying a career best, and led an easy victory against a bad team. The Bengals need wins to dig themselves out of a hole, no matter who they're playing. At 4-5, they're far from dead in the AFC wild-card race.
If the Bengals rally to make the playoffs, it will be because of Burrow. He played well Sunday without Tee Higgins, who missed another game due to injury. What we saw Sunday is what many people expected the Bengals to be all season. They just took a long time to get warmed up.
NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons: The Falcons banked some lucky wins early. That's paying off.
The Falcons have been getting better as the season goes on, and it looks like they're going to run away with the NFC South. The Falcons handled business against a bad Dallas Cowboys team, with Kirk Cousins throwing for three touchdowns in a 27-21 win.
The Falcons' defense did its job too. It blew up a key fourth-and-1 jet sweep to CeeDee Lamb that is going to get brought up a lot as people wonder if head coach Mike McCarthy will be fired soon. Atlanta forced four turnovers on downs, the most for the Cowboys in a game since 2000, according to the Fox broadcast. The Falcons limited the Cowboys' passing attack and eventually knocked Dak Prescott out of the game with a hamstring injury. And the Falcons' offense has been improving with Cousins getting more comfortable.
It wasn't pretty early on, despite some wins. Now the Falcons look like a legit division winner.
LOSERS
Trevor Lawrence: If Lawrence’s passer rating was in double digits in the first half of Sunday’s game, maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars could have won.
Lawrence’s miserable first half was a good reason the Jaguars lost 28-23 to the Philadelphia Eagles. His first-half line is something you should never see from a $55 million per year quarterback: 4 of 10, 23 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and an impossibly low 8.3 passer rating. Unsurprisingly, the Jaguars didn’t score in the first half and trailed 16-0.
Jacksonville rallied in the second half. A defensive touchdown helped the Jaguars cut the deficit to 22-16. Through some baffling Eagles game management, the Jaguars had the ball with a chance to win late, trailing 28-23. But on a throw to the end zone, Lawrence was picked off by linebacker Nakobe Dean. It was a fitting way to end the QB's day.
Lawrence got paid like an elite quarterback, though he has rarely played at that level. His first half Sunday wouldn’t have been acceptable for a quarterback making the minimum salary. The interception at the end zone was no prize either.
Chicago Bears coaching staff: It has not been a good eight days for Chicago head coach Matt Eberflus and his assistants.
There was a series of comedic errors to lose last week’s game to the Washington Commanders, and that included giving the Commanders some free yards before the instantly famous Hail Mary that beat them. Eberflus downplayed the importance of that play, which made him look bad. And the Hail Mary itself was a fiasco for the Bears.
On Sunday there were more sloppy mistakes in a 29-9 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The Bears (4-4) took a leverage penalty on a Cardinals field goal, which gave Arizona a first down. The Cardinals (5-4) turned that into a touchdown. Near the end of the first half, the Cardinals handed it to Emari Demercado on the type of run that almost never breaks for a long gain. Demercado broke it for a 54-yard touchdown with four seconds left in the half, the type of play that doesn’t happen to a well-coached defense. There was also a chop block penalty for a safety in the second half. And an offensive gameplan that had Caleb Williams throwing it way too often. There was nothing for the Bears' coaching staff to be proud of.
Eberflus saved his job with a rally late last season, and it was fine to see if that carried over to this season. It’s hard to be impressed with what the 2024 Bears coaching staff has been doing, especially the past two games.
Dennis Allen and the Saints: There's not much reason for New Orleans to stick with Allen any longer.
Allen and the Saints lost to the lowly Carolina Panthers 23-22 on Sunday. Bryce Young led a late touchdown drive to take the lead. Then the Panthers got a stop, knocking away a deep pass by Derek Carr on fourth down to finish the win. That'll probably do it for Allen as the Saints' head coach. The only question remaining is if the Saints want to make a move during the season or wait until it's done.
The Saints have had injuries, including one to star receiver Chris Olave during Sunday's game, but that doesn't excuse everything. Since a 2-0 start they have been one of the worst teams in the NFL. Allen is 18-25 as Saints coach. They're backsliding. There's not much reason for the team to wait much longer on making a decision regarding Allen's future, especially after Sunday.
Daniel Jones: The New York Giants had to be in a bad place Sunday, looking across the field and knowing the Washington Commanders have found their star quarterback for the next decade in Jayden Daniels.
The Giants still don't have their quarterback and it showed in a 27-22 loss. Daniel Jones struggled badly again in the first half Sunday, taking his team out of the game early on. Jones had the weirdest passing line you'll find in the first half, completing 4 of 6 passes for a touchdown and ... zero yards. He was the first quarterback since at least 2000 to have a touchdown pass in a half but no passing yards, via ESPN Stats and Info. Jones played better in the second half but his first half was too much to overcome.
The Commanders have taken a huge leap in just one offseason, thanks in large part to figuring out their quarterback. The Giants will start looking for their next quarterback soon.
Denver Broncos against a tough opponent: The Broncos have some quality wins. Winning road games at the Buccaneers and Jets isn't that bad. But they were 5-3 in large part because the schedule had some soft spots in it, and to Denver's credit it took advantage of that.
But the schedule is getting tougher, and Sunday's Broncos outing wasn't a great first impression.
The Broncos gave up two touchdowns to Baltimore Ravens receiver Zay Flowers in the first half and fell behind 24-10 by halftime. It never got better in the second half and the Ravens, one of the NFL's best teams, cruised to a 41-10 win. A lot of teams will lose to Baltimore this season, but it exposed the Broncos a bit as a pretender who was masquerading as the AFC's top wild-card team coming into this weekend.
Sunday's loss doesn't mean the Broncos will fall apart. It just showed they're a ways off of being a team anyone would worry about playing in the postseason.
Jerod Mayo, ruining Drake Maye’s moment: Maybe the New England Patriots’ offense, especially rookie quarterback Maye, was gassed. He ran around for what seemed like a minute before throwing a fantastic desperation touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson after time expired.
But Mayo still should have gone for the 2-point conversion.
The Patriots kicked the extra point to tie the Titans and send Sunday’s game into overtime instead of going for 2 and the win, and that left too much to chance. The Titans got the the ball first in overtime and put together a long drive. They kicked a field goal, and then intercepted Maye's deep pass to finish a 20-17 Tennessee win.
As an underdog on the road, the Patriots (2-7) probably should have gone for 2. It's not like they had much to lose. It's a lesson to learn for a rookie head coach.
