Same old Chargers? With a chance to stamp a new identity, Jim Harbaugh’s culture cracked

HOUSTON — For 17 regular-season games, it felt different for the Los Angeles Chargers. All of it. The scheme, the energy, the resilience and joy. And maybe most of all, the backbone.

In a season that was about casting off the boulder of underachieving disappointment that had settled on the shoulders of this franchise, all that was left was to showcase it when it mattered most.

Then came Saturday, when the Houston Texans disassembled the Chargers’ AFC playoff hopes with an enthusiasm unknown to everyone but the team’s fan base. One cratering 32-12 loss later, a season of hopeful progress rolled backward for Los Angeles. Maybe not to square one, but certainly far enough in reverse to illustrate that the culture change in Los Angeles has a long way to go before it proves more than a refacing. Getting into the bones of this one is going to take more time, talent and maybe some redrawn blueprints.

That’s what it felt like Saturday, when a litany of self-inflicted problems and missteps in all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — conjured memories of the Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley head coaching eras.

The defense? It allowed Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who rarely scrambles, to gouge chunks of yardage in key moments. Including surrendering a 14-play, 99-yard drive late in the first half that woke up a Houston offense that felt like it was near its own destructive tipping point. All energized by a 34-yard completion by Stroud on third-and-16 … on a play where the Texans quarterback fumbled the snap, then had to scoop it up and run for his life before connecting with wideout Xavier Hutchinson.

The offense? Crushed under the weight of Houston’s front seven, which both stonewalled the Chargers’ running game and hammered quarterback Justin Herbert in the pocket for much of the night. A distinct pressure that was made incalculably worse by one dropped pass after another, manifesting in arguably the worst outing of Herbert’s career — with four interceptions and a general ineffectiveness from virtually everyone outside of Ladd McConkey’s stellar 197-yard receiving game.

The lowlights included Johnston in particular, who spent the balance of the regular season trying to recast himself as a reliable young player after a 2023 rookie season plagued by drops, only to have his lasting image on Saturday be one dropped pass after another, sandwiched around a fourth-and-2 moment where he ran to a route depth of 1 yard and failed to convert a key first down.

And if all those mistakes and ineptitude wasn’t enough, there was a blocked extra point for the Chargers returned for 2 points by the Texans following a stunning 86-yard touchdown catch by McConkey. The special teams miscue that ensued inexplicably featured kicker Cameron Dicker — an accomplished three-year veteran — batting the blocked kick down from the air as if it was a pass rather than a live football. The Texans, as they did with seemingly every Chargers mistake, took advantage of the moment to again shift momentum back into their favor.

If you watched Los Angeles for 17 regular-season games, these were not Harbaugh’s Chargers. They could not execute the run or establish a physical tempo. They could not protect the football or even hold onto it most of Saturday. The defense could not consistently rattle Stroud down the stretch or hold down opportunities on extended plays in the pocket. Instead, L.A. looked like a roster of players hellbent on wearing that dismissive “Chargers are Chargering” sash one more season.

“Not being the better team today, I’m accountable for that,” Harbaugh said afterward. “So that’s on me.”

It was a finger he’d point at himself repeatedly. Including some of Herbert’s four interceptions.

“Again, on me,” Harbaugh said. “He’s got to be able to finish a throwing motion. A quarterback’s got to be able to do that. We didn’t put him in a position to do that enough.”

And Herbert?

“I let the team down,” he said. “You can’t turn over the ball like that and expect to win. I put the team into a tough position there.”

In the shorter view of history, it will matter less who was most responsible for the collapse than the fact that it again happened. Too often in recent years — especially with Herbert at the helm — it’s been a team with too much talent to repeatedly fail to break through to meaningful success. Whether this disappointment is attached to Harbaugh, Herbert or the cascading failures of multiple players on both offense or defense, the larger worry is whether the same postseason problems are signs of culture cracks. Because that’s what Harbaugh was hired to do: change the Chargers' culture into that of a team capable of meeting expectations head-on and, as he likes to say, attack them with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.

That’s not what happened Saturday. In a season of exceptional changes, it was a recession to a familiar low. And now Harbaugh and the coaching staff and front office will be left to dissect exactly what went wrong. Starting with some of the players who were counted upon in big moments, but shrunk away from the opportunity. It’s unlikely that one bad playoff loss erases all of the core gains Harbaugh and his staff made over the course of the season. Just as it’s unlikely that every single problem that still exists can be fixed in the next few months. The space between those two realities is that there’s a lot of work left ahead. And if anyone inside the franchise needs a testament, there will be Saturday’s game film to remind them.

“Favorite ball team I’ve ever been on,” Harbaugh said in the wake of Saturday’s loss. “One thing I can promise you is that the sun will come up tomorrow and we’ll be attacking it with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

For now, Chargers fans will have to hope that — and Harbaugh’s unyielding optimism even in the face of defeat — will continue to facilitate change and reshape a franchise identity that has yet to change when it matters most.