The Los Angeles Chargers rose to 9-3 on Sunday night by pulling off a 33-30 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4-1). It was a rather crazy game, which included a comeback from being down 23-7 at the half and the multiple Steelers offsides penalties on the game-winning field goal attempts. Regardless, the Chargers came away with a victory – and it’s their biggest one of the season thus far. With this win, the Chargers have made a prime-time statement to football fans: they are for real and should be considered as big a threat as anybody in the AFC.
Los Angeles Chargers Make Statement in AFC by Defeating Pittsburgh Steelers
Previously Overlooked Despite the Record?
Even coming into this game, one would think that the Chargers or any team at 8-3 would be taken seriously. And there has been a fair share of people who have given them the respect they deserve. But there has also been a fair share of those who haven’t thought of them as a contender. The main reason was because, in all of those prior eight wins, they supposedly hadn’t beaten anybody good. That is not entirely correct.
Before the Steelers victory, the Chargers did admittedly have only one win over a team with a winning record (the Seattle Seahawks). And at the time that win wasn’t enough to garner attention because the Seahawks hadn’t really hit their hot streak yet. They did also beat the 6-6 Tennessee Titans. So not every team they defeated during that stretch was a bottom dweller. And beating the Seahawks, particularly on the road, was a strong victory for them as well even if not a lot of people took notice at the time. However, the Chargers were still somewhat overlooked by some coming into Sunday’s game.
Chargers Show Resiliency
This wasn’t an easy one for the Chargers at all; they had to come back from a 23-7 deficit at halftime, and at that point, the defense had looked quite sloppy (Derwin James aside), and the offense looked stifled without Melvin Gordon to help keep the defense honest. Whatever head coach Anthony Lynn told them at halftime, it worked. The Chargers came out in the second half with a vengeance.
It’d be hard to point to any one player as being instrumental in the comeback – the whole team balled out in the second half. The offense, defense, and even special teams all played a role. They didn’t let themselves fall apart just because they had a big halftime deficit, and they came out and played some of the best football they’ve played all year long. And that kind of resiliency – not just on one side of the football, but as an entire team – is exactly the kind of mindset they need when facing these tougher teams in the playoffs.
Last Word
At this point, it’s near impossible to ignore the Chargers as a threat in the AFC. They’ve defeated one of their fellow playoff-bound AFC teams, and are tied for second best record in the conference with the New England Patriots and Houston Texans (all are 9-3). They may be a Wildcard team right now due to being in the same division as the 10-2 Kansas City Chiefs, but they’re still up there with the best of the AFC at this point.
They’ll have another big battle coming next Thursday when they take on the Chiefs, in what will likely be a battle for the AFC West. But before then, they’ll face the 5-7 Cincinnati Bengals, which should be a fairly easy win due to that squad being decimated by injuries. The Chargers still have some challenges to come – both in the regular season and the postseason. But if they play the way they played down the stretch against the Steelers, there will be few teams that can defeat them.
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