{"id":96730,"date":"2025-12-22T04:08:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/96730\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T04:08:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:08:33","slug":"why-the-chargers-look-dangerous-for-playoffs-after-sundays-win-over-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/96730\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Chargers Look Dangerous for Playoffs After Sunday’s Win Over Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chargers are 11-4 after Sunday’s 34-17 road win over the Cowboys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are five takeaways from Week 16.<\/p>\n

1. Chargers look playoff ready<\/p>\n

The Bolts didn’t clinch a playoff spot Sunday<\/a> despite a resounding double-digit road win over the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

But the words Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh uttered postgame should have the rest of the AFC on notice.<\/p>\n

“We played close to our best game of the season in all three phases,” Harbaugh said.<\/p>\n

Yes, with the calendar about to stretch into late December and then January, the Chargers are playing their best ball of the season.<\/p>\n

“Our team is played-led, player-driven. This was a player-led win,” Harbaugh said. “Coaching is good, coaching matters. But the players who are the ones leading this team.”<\/p>\n

He later added: “Our best playmakers and are our leaders are also the guys who work the hardest, care the most about the team. It’s unselfish.”<\/p>\n

Sunday’s win pushed the Chargers to 11 wins, which matches their total from a season ago. Not that they are satisfied.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to shatter that. We can do better,” Derwin James, Jr. said. “If we won 11 last year, we’re trying to get 12 or 13 this year.”<\/p>\n

Remember, this is a team that only a handful of outside pundits picked to make the playoffs. And most of them probably jumped off the bandwagon after season-ending injuries to All-Pro caliber tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, two of the Chargers best offensive players.<\/p>\n

The Chargers offense put up a season-high 452 yards of offense on the road Sunday. And they used essentially their fifth and sixth-string tackles while doing so.<\/p>\n

The Chargers defense? Many experts thought they’d take a step back after leading the NFL in points allowed last year.<\/p>\n

And while the group might not win that accolade this year, Jesse Minter’s group is undoubtedly playing their best ball of the season. The Week 16 win marked the fourth game in a row the Bolts have allowed fewer than 20 points, and Sunday’s effort came against the NFL’s most explosive offense.<\/p>\n

“I think the really cool thing about this team is that we’ve really taken it week by week. We’re never looking too far ahead or looking too far back,” Justin Herbert<\/a> said. “We’re able to pick each other up, the past couple weeks the defense has really been able to help us out and today we were able to kind of help [them] out a little bit.<\/p>\n

“When all three phases are playing complementary for each other, that’s when we’re at our best,” Herbert added.<\/p>\n

With two games left, the Chargers find themselves squarely in the AFC playoff picture as a Wild Card team.<\/p>\n

But the AFC West is still in play depending on what happens around the conference. So, too, is the possible No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

This is prove-it time around the NFL, when teams starting separating and showing who is ready to make a potentially deep playoff run.<\/p>\n

The Chargers have won four in a row and seven of eight overall. They have a bonafide head coach in Harbaugh and a franchise quarterback in Herbert, plus veteran leaders and young players alike who routinely rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n

The holidays are here and New Year’s is peeking around the corner.<\/p>\n

So, too, are the Chargers … just in time for the postseason.<\/p>\n

“Coach Harbaugh said that ‘We’re in a position to be in a position,'” Herbert said. “That’s all you can ask for, where we’re playing meaningful football in December and a lot of teams aren’t.”<\/p>\n

Harbaugh added: “We’re highly motivated.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chargers are 11-4 after Sunday’s 34-17 road win over the Cowboys. Here are five takeaways from Week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[43328,43326,44278,44703,102,104,103,12549,43325,43327],"class_list":{"0":"post-96730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-25-reg-16-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-articles-5-takeaways","11":"tag-articles-postgame-5-takeaways-sofi","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-headlines","14":"tag-dallas-news","15":"tag-homepage-cp","16":"tag-homepage-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-at-dallas-cowboys-2025-reg-16"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}