Despite a brutal loss and relentless mistakes, the Chargers proved their championship mettle, showing grit that will fuel their playoff charge.
The Los Angeles Chargers fell to the Houston Texans 20–16 and dropped to 11–5, officially handing the Denver Broncos the AFC West title. This was a game the Chargers had every opportunity to win, yet everything that could possibly go wrong seemed to fall Houston’s way.
Down 14–0 in the first quarter. Multiple missed kicks from Pro Bowler Cameron Dicker. Several brutal punts from JK Scott. Dropped passes from Oronde Gadsden, including one that turned into a red zone interception. Five sacks allowed. Every mistake imaginable showed up in the same game.
And yet, strangely enough, this loss almost strengthened the Chargers’ case as a legitimate AFC contender.
Could they have used this win? Absolutely. Did they want nothing more than a winner-take-all shot at the AFC West in Denver next week? Without question. But for everything to go as poorly as it did and still have Justin Herbert ready to will the team down the field on a final two-minute drive speaks volumes. Down four, battered all game and still calm, composed and dangerous. That matters.
The loss hurts. It was brutal to watch, especially after an egregious illegal contact call wiped out the Chargers’ chance to get the ball back late. That call will be debated for a long time and it should be. But this team is battle tested.
Will the Chargers be favored in any playoff matchup outside of a potential Steelers game? Probably not. Would they be favored in Houston or Jacksonville? No. But this defense is championship caliber. After giving up 14 quick points on busted coverages, they allowed just six the rest of the game. They kept the Chargers alive despite being put in awful positions over and over again.
Ask yourself this: what are the odds that everything goes wrong like that again in a single game? Is Cameron Dicker suddenly unreliable? Will the offense suffer another catastrophic red zone drop? Will the special teams collapse all at once? Those things might happen individually, but all together again is highly unlikely.
What is likely is this defense showing up. What is likely is this team responding. They’ve beaten Denver already. They’ve proven they can go toe-to-toe with elite defenses. The idea that they cannot compete with the best teams in the conference simply isn’t true.
Jim Harbaugh is coaching a tough football team. A group that is furious about how this one slipped away and a group that will respond. Better to get this kind of game out of the way now with the playoffs secured than to let it happen in the Wild Card round.
Maybe the Chargers rest starters next week. Maybe they don’t. Either way, they’re headed into January as a team no one is going to enjoy facing. They won’t bow down. They won’t go quietly.
Let’s see how they respond and get ready for a real playoff run.