Chargers talked Super Bowl all offseason. Then their parachute didn’t open.

The Los Angeles Chargers spent an entire offseason talking like a team ready to play in February.

On Sunday, they barely looked ready for September.

All the Super Bowl expectations, the arrival of offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, the belief that Justin Herbert was ready to climb another rung toward the NFL’s quarterback penthouse. 

It came crashing down on Sunday at SoFi Stadium against the Arizona Cardinals. 

Maybe Jim Harbaugh foreshadowed it himself.

“You do everything you can to prepare, but you just don’t know,” the Chargers coach said before the season. “We’re jumping out of a plane and let’s hope the parachute opens.”

On Sunday, the parachute never opened.

And the Chargers came crashing back to earth.

The Chargers were 9½-point favorites against an Arizona team that went 3-14 last season and arrived in Los Angeles carrying a nine-game losing streak. More than 30% of entries in survivor pools reportedly picked the Chargers, essentially treating them as one of Sunday’s safest bets.

Instead the Chargers laid an egg, losing 26-14 in a game that wasn’t particularly close in the second half. Frankly, the Chargers were outplayed by Arizona in all three phases. 

Arizona came to SoFi with a new head coach, new coordinators, new personnel and plenty of reasons to preach patience and growth. Instead, the Cardinals looked like the better prepared, more physical, and more experienced team. Mike LaFleur became the first Cardinals head coach since Don Coryell in 1973 to win his debut with the franchise. 

The Chargers, meanwhile, looked like the team undergoing a rebuild. 

That’s the scary part for Bolts fans because after back-to-back 11-6 seasons and consecutive playoff appearances under Harbaugh, the expectations for the 2026 season were elevated. Making the playoffs isn’t enough anymore. Winning 11 games isn’t enough. The Chargers spent the offseason embracing the Super Bowl expectations coming from the outside. Plenty of people around the NFL believed them. Our own Senior NFL writer picked them to play in the big game. 

But they certainly didn’t look like a team capable of meeting those expectations on Sunday. Herbert finished 17 for 27 for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception in his first game running McDaniel’s offense. Those aren’t catastrophic numbers on their face, but they certainly aren’t what anyone envisioned when McDaniel arrived with expectations of unlocking another level from one of football’s most gifted quarterbacks. 

The cruel irony was that Herbert still made history, becoming the fourth-fastest quarterback in NFL history to eclipse 25,000 career passing yards, trailing only Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford and Dan Marino. 

It should have been another milestone celebrating the trajectory of his career. 

Instead, Herbert spent much of the afternoon doing something else that has become painfully familiar in his career: running for his life. 

The Chargers’ offensive line was once again overwhelmed when it mattered most. Herbert was sacked three times, including in crucial situations. The protection problems that haunted this offseason last season weren’t exorcised by changing coordinators. 

If the Chargers seriously intend to play for a Lombardi Trophy, that cannot continue.

The sloppiness extended beyond the offense.

A blocked punt helped Arizona score a touchdown, exactly the type of special teams catastrophe championship teams are supposed to eliminate. Los Angeles committed turnovers, lost battles in the trenches and committed critical defensive penalties that kept Cardinals drives alive. 

This was supposed to be the soft landing before the Chargers’ schedule became considerably more difficult. Instead of burying an opponent coming off a three-win season, Los Angeles allowed Arizona to walk into their own building and take this game from them. Exposing many of the same flaws that made people wonder whether the Chargers were truly contenders in the first place. 

Thankfully, this is only Week 1. 

As great as the Cardinals played and poorly as the Chargers were, nobody in the NFL wins a Super Bowl in September. The 2025 New England Patriots opened their season with a loss to the three-win Las Vegas Raiders. Then they won 17 of their next 19 games on their road to the Super Bowl. 

If you’re Harbaugh and McDaniel in the Chargers’ locker room after the game, it’s time to preach patience. McDaniel’s offense will evolve. Herbert will play better as the season goes along. The offensive line has plenty of time to gel and stabilize, and Harbaugh has built up enough credibility in his coaching career to deserve more than 60 minutes before making sweeping declarations. 

The Chargers arrived on Sunday carrying Super Bowl expectations and they looked like they believed the hype would do the work for them. 

It won’t.

It’s time to start putting in the work both on and off the field and building championship habits now. They need to arrive at games as the more hungry team that’s ready for the moment. 

Not their opponents. 

Do that, and the rest will work itself out along the way.

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