Chargers’ Winless Start Under Jim Harbaugh Reaches Uncharted Ground

The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-2, and for head coach Jim Harbaugh, the mark is a first: no team he has coached at the professional or college level had ever opened a season with back-to-back losses until now.

The latest setback came Sunday at SoFi Stadium, where the Chargers fell to a Las Vegas Raiders squad widely projected to sit near the bottom of the league standings this season. Los Angeles dropped its opener as well, leaving the club without a win against a pair of opponents — Arizona and Las Vegas — that few pegged as early stumbling blocks.

What makes the start particularly concerning is what follows. Over the next stretch of the schedule, the Chargers face Buffalo, Seattle, Denver, Kansas City and the Rams — five consecutive games against playoff-caliber opposition, with four on the road, before a bye. A winless record deep into November is a realistic possibility if the offense does not find traction quickly.

Through two games, that unit has yet to launch. The Chargers rank below the league average in both passing and rushing, and their scoring output of 14 points per game trails all but three teams that have played twice: Miami, Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Quarterback Justin Herbert, the centerpiece of preseason expectations that included division-title talk, acknowledged afterward that the performance fell short of the team’s own bar. Harbaugh was similarly blunt, telling reporters there was “no time” for patience with how the team was playing.

History is not on their side, either. Since 1990, only about 10 percent of teams that started 0-2 reached the postseason, according to research published by NBC Sports, the sports outlet owned by Comcast Corporation (CMCSA), whose shares traded at $23.02 in recent action, up roughly 1% from a prior close of $22.79 and valuing the media and telecom giant at about $92.5 billion.

For Harbaugh, the stumble marks a jarring shift. His previous NFL stint in San Francisco ended with a Super Bowl appearance following the 2012 season, and his return to the professional ranks carried lofty projections. Instead, the Chargers now find themselves searching for answers before the calendar turns to October, with little margin for error left in a schedule that offers no soft landing spots.

What to watch

• Whether the Chargers can avoid an 0-3 start on the road against Buffalo.
• Signs of offensive improvement from Herbert and a unit averaging 14 points per game.
• The team’s next media availability for any scheme or personnel changes.
• Week 4 and beyond against Denver, Kansas City and the Rams before the bye.

Source: original release