INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Trailing at halftime to the Denver Broncos in a game critical to the Los Angeles Chargers‘ playoff hopes, head coach Jim Harbaugh implored his tone setter on defense Derwin James to deliver some inspiration.
James didn’t disappoint.
“It’s time to go,” James said he told his teammates. “It’s time to play. We don’t need no coach to give us a speech right now. It’s on the players.”
James kept it simple. And it worked, as the Chargers stormed back in the second half, outscoring the Broncos 21-6 over the final two periods to defeat Denver, 34-27, on Thursday at SoFi Stadium. The win upped the Bolts’ record to 9-6, putting them on the brink of the postseason in Harbaugh’s first season in Los Angeles.
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With the win, the Chargers have a 97% chance of reaching the playoffs according to NFL Next Gen stats. They can even clinch this weekend if the Miami Dolphins lose to the San Francisco 49ers, and the Indianapolis Colts lose to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
The victory ended a rough stretch for the Chargers, as they had lost three of their last four games entering Thursday’s contest.
But the Chargers got a signature performance from their best player. Quarterback Justin Herbert played lights out, completing 23 of 31 passes for 284 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception for a 106.6 passer rating. Both of Herbert’s TD passes came in the fourth quarter — a 19-yard pass to receiver Derius Davis and a toss to running back Hassan Haskins for a 34-yard reception.
“He’s phenomenal,” Ladd McConkey told FOX Sports. The rookie receiver led the Chargers with six receptions for 87 yards. “He’s a dang warrior. He comes out every single day and puts his best foot forward. We know we’ve got a chance when he’s back there.”
Herbert, who’s been dealing with a lingering ankle injury, also used his legs more, running eight times for 28 yards. It was the type of performance by Herbert that NFL observers had been clamoring to see in a got-to-have-it moment from one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league, as he engineered his 12th career fourth-quarter comeback.
“His legs are a weapon,” James told FOX Sports. “These other quarterbacks are running on us, so I always tell him when you can run, it makes it that much tougher.
“He put us on his back when we needed his best. I was telling Joey (Bosa) on the sideline, 10 is fixing to get the first down. We’re not going to have to go back out there. And he did that with his legs, keeping the drives going. It feels good to win, man.”
Chargers beat Broncos: How far can Justin Herbert take this team?
Some folks nationally have questioned Herbert’s ability to come through in the clutch and carry his team down the stretch when games matter most. Herbert acknowledged in his post-game comments that he’s heard the water cooler conversations, and says he looks forward and embraces those moments.
“You treat that as if it’s the last play,” Herbert said. “You’re never worried about the previous drive where if I throw an interception, I never want to let that affect my next throw.
“If that lives in my head, I’m doing a disservice to my team. So, for us to be able to put that behind us, move on and say, ‘Hey, this is the drive where we’re going to go get it done.’ I think that’s what we did today. We continued to fight. We’ve been fighting all year and that has never left us.”
While Herbert stepped up when the Chargers needed him, the play that changed the momentum occurred when the Bolts created an opportunity to take a fair-catch kick at the end of the first half.
The Chargers forced Denver to punt out of their own end zone with 8 seconds left. While fielding the punt, Davis coaxed a fair catch interference penalty with no time left.
[Related: What is a fair-catch kick?]
The 15-yard penalty moved Los Angeles to the Denver 47-yard line, allowing Harbaugh to take advantage of an obscure rule that allows a team that has just made a fair catch to try a free kick for three points. The kick is attempted from the line of scrimmage, and the defenders must stand 10 yards away.
The Chargers have one of the best kickers in the NFL in Cameron Dicker, who drilled the attempt from 57 yards, cutting Denver’s lead to 21-13 at the half.
Harbaugh had attempted this play once before in 2013, when he was head coach of the 49ers, but Phil Dawson missed a 71-yard kick. The last player to make a fair-catch kick was Ray Wersching while playing for the San Diego Chargers 48 years ago, in 1976.
“It’s my favorite rule in football,” Harbaugh said. “Just been trying to get one of those every game.”
Dicker said that special teams coach Ryan Ficken had gone over the fair-catch kick scenario every Friday in the lead-up to game days, so he was aware of the situation.
“I didn’t really think it would ever happen,” Dicker said. “I was always like, that would be cool if it did, because they’re usually longer kicks, and longer kicks are fun. So, I was hoping it would happen, and it was a really cool opportunity for us.”
How scary are Justin Herbert’s Chargers?
The momentum-changing play was the latest example of the traditionally unprepared Chargers now being among the most buttoned-up teams on game days.
“We are always prepared for every situation,” James told FOX Sports, when asked about Dicker making the kick. “It’s amazing having a coach that has you prepared, so you can just come in and do your part. It feels good.”
The scuffling Chargers got back to their blueprint for success under Harbaugh. They ran for 134 yards, led by Gus Edwards‘ 68 yards and two touchdowns. They finished with fewer penalties than the Broncos (Denver had seven penalties for 61 yards, while the Chargers had two for 8 yards).
One of the top-ranked defenses in the league, led by defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, held the Broncos to six points in the second half. And an offense that has struggled to score points in the past month put up 34 against one of the league’s best defenses, including a season-high 21 points in the second half.
“We know what type of team we are when we put it all together,” McConkey said. “We know how we can play. We’ve showed spurts of it, we just need to put it all together now.”
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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