Chargers Defense Forces Four Interceptions; Carries in Win Over Falcons
Despite a struggling offense that failed to register an offensive touchdown, the Chargers defensive unit saves the day in a gritty Week 13 win over the Atlanta Falcons to get back in the win column.
Austin Gage | Contributing Sports Writer
It wasn’t pretty, but the Chargers’ journey to the playoffs became much easier after a 17-13 road victory against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 13.
Coming into Sunday’s matchup, Los Angeles had scored 20-plus points in each of their last five games. Quarterback Justin Herbert and the passing offense especially seemed to escape the early-season drought throwing the ball they seemed to be in, as the star passer enjoyed a stretch where he threw for over 279 yards in three separate instances.
However, traveling across the country to play in the “A”, things would be much different.
Herbert would end the day with 147 passing yards on 16 for 23 passing and only see 56 yards rushing from the rest of the roster. As a matter of fact, the Chargers would be outgained significantly on the day as the Falcons tallied 350 total yards compared to the Bolts’ 187.
The difference on the day would be Los Angeles’ ability to force turnovers: more specifically, interceptions of Atlanta’s quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Cousins, the veteran 36-year-old quarterback who received a massive four-year, $180 million deal from the Falcons in the offseason, has experienced a solid year one in Atlanta. With that said, he has shown struggles in his past few games and liabilities to turning the ball over, and that is something the Chargers’ defense took advantage of on Sunday.
A promising opening drive for the Falcons, one that saw a first-play 15-yard rush by star running back Bijan Robinson, ended sourly for the home team as kicker Younghoe Koo missed a 35-yard attempt to the right.
Despite some early momentum, the Chargers offense failed to take control of the game after the Koo miscue.
Missing emerging running back J.K. Dobbins, who was placed on the IR this week with a left knee injury, the Bolts had to rely on other faces to carry the run game. One of those faces was Hassan Haskins, who received a carry on third and one on the drive after the missed Falcons field goal attempt. Haskins fumbled the ball and gave it back to Atlanta while ruining any Los Angeles hopes of acquiring an early lead.
Opposite to the Chargers, the Falcons took advantage of the miscue and constructed a quick scoring drive to take the lead late in the first quarter. Capped by a two-yard Robinson rushing touchdown, Atlanta took a 7-0 lead. Robinson enjoyed another quality day in an impressive season as he carried the football 26 times for 102 yards and added six catches for 33 yards receiving to go along with the rushing score.
Looking for an answer, Herbert and company generated some offense for the first time on the day. In what has become a special connection, the talented quarterback linked up with rookie standout wide receiver Ladd McConkey for 49 yards. McConkey flourished in the first half and would end his day with another productive statline: nine catches for 117 yards. The second-round pick, who played high school and college football in the state of Georgia, settled in after Week 13 as the second-highest rookie in the league in terms of receiving yards.
Unfortunately, in what would be a repeated pattern Sunday, the Chargers could not end drives with the ball in the endzone. Kicker Cameron Dicker bailed out the offense when it went cold with a successful 45-yard field goal.
On the ensuing drive, the Chargers’ defense quickly made up for the allowed touchdown on the previous Falcon offensive possession. After two quality rushes by Robinson, Cousins attempted a pass intended for wide receiver Drake London. Jumping in front of the latter, Los Angeles rookie cornerback Tarheeb Still claimed the football in the air and picked off the Atlanta quarterback for the first time on the day. Still would not be done on the day and neither would the Charger defense as a whole.
In a drive eerily similar to the previous offensive possession, the Chargers drove down the field thanks to a big gain from McConkey but could not convert on the Falcons’ side of the field. Dicker converted a 51-yard field goal try and cut the Atlanta lead to just one at 7-6.
The remainder of the second quarter included back-to-back punts forced on the Falcon offense by the Chargers and a 16-play, 63-yard drive by the Bolts on offense to put them in position to take the lead before the half.
A sack on first down at the Atlanta 16-yard line followed by two Herbert incompletions stalled the drive though and Dicker came on to make his third field goal of the first half to give the Chargers a 9-7 lead going into half.
Although they entered the locker room with a halftime advantage, the Chargers wanted and needed offensive production badly.
Despite this, the Bolts would not produce anything offensively in the second half. In total, they finished with 38 yards in the second half. On four drives, excluding a two-play drive at the end of the game that included two kneels, Los Angeles finished drives with a punt three times and one turnover on downs from a failed fake punt attempt.
The Chargers needed standout defensive play to have any chance at winning the game, and they received it. After an early third-quarter scoring drive by the Falcons that ended with a 41-yard field goal make by Koo, Los Angeles and the secondary locked in.
With no help from the offense, the defense took it into their own hands to put points on the board.
Forcing a fourth down near midfield late in the third quarter, the Chargers’ defense forced a Cousins pass attempt toward the right side of the field. From there, Still made another fantastic play and gathered his second interception of the day. Not done yet, the rookie flew down the sideline and took it to the endzone for the pick-six. The 62-yard interception return and a successful two-point conversion gave Los Angeles a 17-10 lead that they would not give up the rest of the day.
“Reading the quarterback’s eyes, he let go of the ball, took his hand off the ball, went to go throw it, so I just went to go make a play. It felt good to get to the endzone,” said Still.
The Falcons responded nicely with another field goal to make the score 17-13, but that is how the score would remain the rest of the way thanks to stingy defense.
On the last two Atlanta offensive possessions of the game, the first with “goal-to-go” and the second with less than a minute remaining, Los Angeles forced two more interceptions to seal the game. Safety Marcus Maye picked off Cousins in the endzone first with just over nine minutes left in the contest, and star safety Derwin James jumped a pass intended for wide receiver Darnell Mooney on fourth down to give Cousins his fourth interception thrown on the day.
With that, the Chargers would hold on for the 17-13 victory.
“Obviously not the way we wanted to play, we’re not impressed or pleased with how we played but we’re very happy that we won. Our defense came up with some huge stops, got a bunch of turnovers; they showed up and we got to do better as an offense,” Herbert said after the game.
Although questions will be asked regarding the offense’s performance, particularly in the second half, Los Angeles escaped with a road victory against a potential playoff team and showcased defense that makes them stack up among the league’s finest.
“It’s a beautiful thing, it’s coming together. Guys [are] playing complementary, winning football,” said head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Up next for the 8-4 Chargers is a divisional showdown on the road against the 11-1 Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night, a team that they narrowly lost to in Week 4, 17-10. The anticipated rematch will be on December 8th.
