Chargers Fall to Cardinals in Week 1 Upset 26-14

The Los Angeles Chargers took on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon to begin the 2026 season, which resulted in the Cardinals picking up the win by a score of 26-14

In this game, the Chargers did not perform well across the board, which was a major reason why they started slowly and lost to the Cardinals in the season opener.

With the understanding that the Chargers did fall to the Cardinals, let's take a look at how this game unfolded.

On that note, the scoring started very early on in this game as quarterback Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals offense took the opening kickoff all the way down the field for a touchdown as rookie running back Jeremiyah Love ran it in from three yards out to put Arizona up 7-0.

The very next drive, quarterback Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense were able to respond as they marched all the way down the field and ended up tying the game up at 7-7 with an eight-yard Omarion Hampton rushing touchdown.

Then the scoring slowed down a little bit as Arizona missed a field goal, then the Chargers fumbled.

On the next series, the Cardinals went back down the field, and kicker Chad Ryland hit a 27-yard field goal to take the lead back 10-7.

After that, Los Angeles had a good drive going as they got down to the three-yard line, but on fourth and goal, quarterback Justin Herbert was sacked, which gave the Chargers no points on a red zone trip.

Then to end the half, the Cardinals extended the lead to 13-7 as Ryland converted on a 44-yard field goal.

Following the halftime break, the Chargers were forced to punt, and then Arizona added more cushion to the lead as they drove down, and Ryland hit a 34-yard field goal to go up 16-7.

With the Chargers down by nine points, they were able to respond as Herbert led the offense on a solid drive that ended in Herbert throwing an eight-yard touchdown pass from Herbert to wide receiver Ladd McConkey.

After the response from Los Angeles, the Cardinals punted, the Chargers punted, and then Arizona punted again.

On the next possession, the Chargers had a punt blocked which then set up the Cardinals in the redzone and resulted in Arizona taking advantage as Brissett threw a three-yard touchdown pass to tight end Trey McBride which extended the Cardinals lead to 23-14.

The Chargers then tried to respond, but Herbert threw an interception as he tried to target wide receiver Derius Davis deep down the field. 

The Cardinals did not do anything with the turnover, but they were able to take some time off the clock and then punted it back to Los Angeles.

On that next possession for the Chargers, they had several penalties and ended up turning it over on downs which gave Arizona a short field. 

With the short field, the Cardinals chewed some clock and kicked a field goal that put them up 12 points as the lead was extended to 26-14.

In desperation, the Chargers tried to drive down and cut into the lead, but they were unable to but actually turned it over on downs for the third time in the game.

On the final drive of the game, Birissett took a couple of quarterback kneels to wind out the clock as the Chargers were out of timeouts.

With the loss, head coach Jim Harbaugh and Los Angeles moves to 0-1 while Arizona earns its first win under first-year head coach Mike Lafleur to go to 1-0.

Looking ahead to next week, the Chargers have to find a way to be much better on the offensive side of the ball, which starts with offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, as they have a very tough schedule this season and will need the entire team to improve from how they played in Week 1.