Justin Herbert Is Your MVP

This game was a huge "prove-it" moment for the franchise. They went to a neutral field in Brazil and beat a severely injured Chiefs team, then beat a not great Raiders team on the road. GREAT! Beating the Raiders shows that shows you're better than the Staley and Lynn era teams that lost to the teams they should beat. Beating the Chiefs is even better since neither of them could do that period, regardless of injuries.

The big thing for me was HOW they won these games. Offensively, they were a completely different team than 2024. Instead of being a run first, grinding team, they were airing out. The pass/rush ratio was totally flipped! So all the 2024 tape that the Chiefs and Raiders had was basically useless and the Chargers destroyed both of them with play action. So what happens when you play a good defense that has new tape and won't be so eager to bite on play action? 

Well, we saw a lot of what I predicted come to pass. 

Within the first half, there were already a bunch of big injuries. Najee Harris, who has never missed a start in his career, seems to have ruptured his Achilles (The devil works hard but the Chargers' injury curse works harder). RG Mekhi Becton went down with a concussion. RT Trey Pipkins was in-and-out with an ankle injury. All of this lead to Justin Herbert getting OBLITERATED by Denver's extremely talented pass rush. He was hit 14 times, sacked 5 times and I'm sure the pressure rate is going to be insane when those numbers come out. 

Does. Not. Matter. 4th quarter, game on the line and he throws an insane touchdown and marches the team up the field for the winning score. 

This is MVP stuff, folks. Oh, and guess who was in attendance.