Texans considered easier playoff opponent for Chargers, but ‘They’ve got playmakers’
LAS VEGAS — Derwin James Jr. breaks every Chargers huddle with a simple direction.
“Be the best,” the star safety’s teammates respond in unison.
On Sunday, the Chargers lived up to their daily proclamation, cementing themselves as the NFL’s top defense in points allowed while finishing the regular season with a 34-20 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Allowing an average of 17.7 points per game, the Chargers (11-6) edged the Philadelphia Eagles, who held the New York Giants to 13 points in Week 18 and permitted 17.8 points per game.
When told the Chargers held on to the top ranking, coach Jim Harbaugh flashed two thumbs up and smiled. He praised first-year defensive coordinator Jesse Minter as “a superstar” for remaking a unit that ranked 24th in scoring last season. But Harbaugh did not linger on the accomplishment for long.
A new season begins Saturday.
The Chargers could on the cusp of winning multiple playoff games, and it has everything to do with its transformation under Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert.
The league’s top-ranked defense will now test its mettle in the postseason, where the Chargers play at No. 4 seed Houston (10-7) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PST in the wild-card round.
The Chargers flexed their muscle in a critical three-game winning streak that vaulted them from seventh in the AFC to fifth. The surge set up a seemingly more manageable matchup against the AFC South champions and second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud, compared to potential games against Buffalo’s Josh Allen or Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson.
Still, Stroud has shown flashes of brilliance in his young career. The 2023 offensive rookie of the year was the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game, leading the Texans to a 45-14 win over the Cleveland Browns. He set a rookie franchise record with 4,108 yards passing, which ranked third-most in NFL history for a first-year player.
Stroud has struggled to re-create that magic in his second season, having 12 passes intercepted compared to three as a rookie and throwing three fewer touchdown passes. The passing game has been hampered by injuries, including season-ending knee injuries to receivers Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell.
Nico Collins leads the Texans with 1,006 yards receiving and seven touchdowns on 68 catches while Joe Mixon has 1,016 yards rushing.
“C.J. Stroud is elite. Nico Collins, elite,” Harbaugh said Sunday. “They’ve got playmakers, great competitors.”
Stroud broke through last season under current Chargers quarterback coach Shane Day. He worked as the Texans’ senior offensive assistant in 2023 after he was fired from the Chargers in the wake of the team’s 27-point playoff collapse against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022.
Now reunited with Justin Herbert, whom he coached to the Pro Bowl in 2021, Day has brought “elite” coaching to the quarterback room, Harbaugh said.
“Really stellar, stellar coaching of the quarterback,” Harbaugh said last week after Herbert led the Chargers to a playoff-clinching victory over the New England Patriots. “The way he progresses through his reads, the way he understands every check, every defense.”
The Chargers will open the NFL playoffs with an AFC wild-card game on Saturday at Houston and the Rams will close the weekend with a Monday night game at home.
Although Herbert’s stats have failed to reach the blistering pace of his first four seasons, the former No. 6 pick set a career-high in passer rating while throwing for 3,870 yards and 23 touchdowns.
His three passes intercepted were the second-fewest in a season by a quarterback with at least 450 attempts, and he finished the regular season with 346 yards passing against the Raiders. That was his 27th career 300-yard game, tied with Andrew Luck and Jameis Winston for the third-most by a player in their first five seasons.
“I’m not going to say ‘unbelievable,’ because I believe it,” Harbaugh said Sunday. “Because I see it every day.”
The Texans rank sixth in the NFL in yards allowed per game (315) and yards passing (201).
Herbert has the Chargers’ offense surging at the right time, scoring 34 or more points in three consecutive games after averaging 21 points in the first 14.
Behind big performances from Justin Herbert and Quentin Johnston, the Chargers defeated the Raiders and locked up the No. 5 playoff seed in the AFC.
The Chargers continued the scoring streak Sunday despite shuffling their offensive line against the Raiders because of a pregame injury to Pro Bowl left tackle Rashawn Slater. Slater felt discomfort in his knee before the game, according to a Chargers spokesperson, and was held out by trainers. Harbaugh said the team could get an MRI scan on Slater to monitor the injury entering the postseason.
Needing a win on Sunday to clinch the No. 5 seed, the Chargers didn’t opt to rest any healthy starters until the victory was secure because Harbaugh wanted to keep the team in position to possibly get a home playoff game in the divisional round.
By moving into the No. 5 seed, the Chargers not only avoided matching up with the explosive offenses of Buffalo or Baltimore, but they can also earn their first home playoff game since 2009 if they win and No. 7 Denver and No. 6 Pittsburgh also win in the wild-card round.
The chances are slim, but so were the Chargers’ chances of getting the No. 5 seed.
“It’s the playoffs. Fifth seed, seventh seed, one seed, two seed. You’re gonna play a really good football team,” said running back J.K. Dobbins, whose hometown of La Grange, Texas, is about 90 minutes west of Houston. “Houston’s a really good team, and we’re gonna have to bring our A-game.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
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