So now that Jim Harbaugh’s first season with the Chargers is in the books with Saturday’s defeat in a wild-card playoff game, it’s time to answer a big question.

Are the Chargers the same Chargers they’ve always been?

The answer is no.

And yes.

The first answer will be the longer one, because that’s where the 17-game season points.

Over those four months, they weren’t the same old Chargers.

One, they Chargered far less.

Instead of goofing up winnable games, a habit that introduced Chargering into NFL speech, they forced opponents to beat them. They finished among the leaders in fewest turnovers and fewest penalties. No team threw fewer interceptions. In field-goal percentage and net punting, the Chargers landed in the top half. This team didn’t beat itself very often.

Two, in establishing a reputation for physical play, the Chargers broke from the franchise’s norms over the years since Marty Schottenheimer was fired.

Physicality isn’t easily quantified, but in leading the NFL in fewest points allowed, Harbaugh’s defense asserted itself at all three levels.

It takes good tackling, setting the edge and displacing blockers to allow the fewest rushing touchdown, as L.A. did.

A high number of defensive holding penalties, reflecting greater physicality, was the cost of doing business for a unit that finished fourth in net yards allowed per pass attempt.

On offense, Harbaugh and coordinator Greg Roman emphasized slam-bam football — even if it could be tedious.

They often deployed either of two massive fullbacks/wingbacks/tight ends, each weighing close to 300 pounds. Sixteen percent of the offense’s snaps came with a tight end and two running backs, one of them a huge mauler; only three offenses went with that personnel grouping more often.

They weren’t the same old Chargers. They were the Harbaugh Chargers, resembling the coach’s physical, sound teams at Stanford, Michigan and with the San Francisco 49ers.

It wasn’t surprising that Harbaugh changed so much about the franchise’s identity.

He commanded more power than any coach hired in the Spanos era, which goes back almost four decades. He was able to hire his own general manager, breaking from Spanos tradition, and also brought in a pair of coordinators, several positional coaches and a much-praised strength coach.

A former NFL quarterback, Harbaugh took a hands-on approach with Justin Herbert.

The regular-season results took a big jump: from five victories to 11 victories. And Herbert set career marks in victories, passer rating and interception rate, while also assembling his second-best Total Quarterback Rating, an ESPN statistic that accounts for rushing.

The Chargers’ only playoff game under Harbaugh?

That was a different story.

That look was Same Ol’ Chargers.

Notwithstanding stretches of defensive dominance, Harbaugh’s Bolts echoed the Chargers’ futility of many other postseason defeats.

The names were different, but two key areas of underperformance were familiar: interceptions thrown and failed kicking attempts.

Recalling Chargers Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts, Herbert threw four interceptions, exceeding his regular-season total by one. Fouts was more prone to interceptions in the playoffs than in the regular season. Sixteen of his passes were picked off in his seven playoff games. To be fair, interceptions then were common throughout the NFL, and Fouts led the Chargers to a few playoff wins with sparkling play. Still, his interception rate per passing attempt was 30% higher in the postseason than in the regular season.

Along with the offense’s poor game, the Chargers’ kicking game plummeted Saturday, too.

Fortunate that a deflected punt took a favorable bounce, the Chargers would later allow a blocked one-point attempt that the Texans returned for two points. A three-point swing, the sequence ballooned the fourth-quarter deficit to 13 points.

And it summoned the ghosts of Chargers kicking failures in Januarys past.

Several errant kicks by Nate Kaeding contributed to San Diego Chargers playoff defeats. An 86.2% kicker on field goals for his career in the regular season, Kaeding made just 8 of 15 field goals in the postseason, a rate of 53.3%.

It was just one game, but Saturday’s playoff defeat punctured some of Harbaugh’s mystique he’d built up in the regular-season run to the first wild card.

The sheer bizarreness of the three-point blunder made for vintage Chargering.

After his kick was blocked sky-high, Cameron Dicker, who a had bright season, camped under it and tried to bat it down instead of catching the live ball. Dicker got clobbered for his effort. Unfortunately for him, points weren’t given for comic relief. “OMG Chargers kicker! hahahahaha,” former Chiefs All-Pro tackle Mitchell Schwartz posted on social media.

The outing in total wasn’t a full-on Chargering performance. The Texans’ defense, which has stars at all three levels, was simply too good on several plays. The Chargers were favored by three points, but as the game unfolded, Houston coach DeMeco Ryans’ defense — better than almost every unit the Chargers had faced — showed how limited their offensive personnel was.

But, this was eerie: the Chargers’ most consequential errors recalled the franchise’s first playoff game of the Super Bowl era — a 17-14 loss in December 1979.

On that afternoon at sunny San Diego Stadium, where thousands of San Diegans wore gold “Charger Power” T-shirts, Fouts threw five interceptions against a franchise from Houston, the Oilers.

Cue up the spooky music, while pondering another parallel tidbit: Chargers kicker Mike Wood’s 26-yard field goal try in the second quarter was blocked, and Houston returned it 56 yards. That led to a short field goal for Houston, making it a six-point swing. Four more interceptions by Fouts would follow, and the Chargers, eight-point favorites, walked into the afternoon shadow with a stunning defeat.

Harbaugh’s team, in contrast, was playing with house money. Defense aside, it got exposed at several positions.

On to the offseason.

Originally Published: January 13, 2025 at 6:13 PM PST