The Los Angeles Chargers can finally breathe.
After blowing a 27-6 lead with 21 unanswered points, the Chargers eventually staved off the Cincinnati Bengals with a key 34-27 win on Week 11 of Sunday Night Football.
Los Angeles dominated the first half en route to a 24-6 cushion at halftime, which extended to 27-6 in the early minutes of the third quarter.
But Cincinnati woke up from that point on and scored 21 unanswered to stun the SoFi Stadium crowd. However, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson blew two opportunities to give Cincinnati the lead, eventually resulting in J.K. Dobbins' game-winning run. Justin Herbert also threw multiple dimes to move the chains.
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JK DOBBINS. GO-AHEAD TD WITH 18 SECONDS LEFT.
— NFL (@NFL) November 18, 2024
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The result moved Los Angeles to 7-3 to maintain its spot near the top of the tight AFC while Cincinnati disappointingly fell to 4-7, where there is almost no more room for error the rest of the way.
Let's analyze the game further with three takeaways:
Kickers are important
Of course it's impossible to tell how the game would've ended if McPherson made his field goals late on, but it further amplified the importance of kickers.
McPherson's two late misses failed to give Cincinnati the lead to capitalize on the hard work the offense and defense did to knot the game at 27 all. He did so on back-to-back drives too, missing from 48 and 51 yards out.
He made two first-half field goals, with a long of 27. However, he'll obviously be known for his misses that may have finally derailed Cincinnati's underwhelming season.
Chargers avoid embarassment
Los Angeles may have had flashbacks to the 2023 playoffs (2022 season) when it traveled to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs.
The Chargers in that game led 27-0 and looked well on their way to advance to the divisional round under Brandon Staley, but infamously allowed a comeback that saw Jacksonville win 31-30.
Los Angeles didn't return to the playoffs last season with Staley still at the helm, but Jim Harbaugh has helped lead a resurgence in just his first season with the franchise. He didn't allow a repeat of that performance, though they did need some luck this time.
Are the Chargers contenders?
There's still plenty of football to be played, but the Chargers are in a very propitious spot after 10 games in the books. At 7-3, they are currently in the No. 5 seed if the playoffs began today, which would set up a wild-card matchup against the Houston Texans.
Los Angeles still has its flaws -- defensive injury inconsistencies and a lack of star weapons for Herbert -- but it might just be decent enough to be a sleeper team in the conference. The 7-4 Baltimore Ravens and 6-5 Denver Broncos are the two teams behind them, with every other AFC team currently below .500.
