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 and Bengals 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 some mistakes by the Browns, which happens when you are 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 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 will finally have a challenger in the AFC West going forward.
The Chargers have been mostly irrelevant since moving from San Diego. 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
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 only in that spot because of a horrible roughness penalty by Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer on a third-and-9 incompletion in the final minute, when Poyer launched himself helmet first at 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 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 fair 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 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. They 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
Dennis Allen and the Saints: There’s not much reason for the New Orleans Saints 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 probably does 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 on Sunday 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 that was masquerading as the AFC’s top wild-card team coming into this week. 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 probably should have just gone for 2. It’s not like they had much to lose. It’s a lesson to learn for a rookie head coach.