.webp)
CHARGERS
Chargers look to clinch playoff spot, but Colts will not break easily
a football player in a blue uniform throws a football
Quarterback Justin Herbert and the Chargers can clinch a playoff spot Monday night, but they know it won’t be an easy task against the Colts.(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
BY JEFF MILLER
STAFF WRITER
FOLLOW
DEC. 26, 2022 4:30 AM PT
Show more sharing options
INDIANAPOLIS — After a season of uneven performances, the Chargers’ defense has leveled off — and leveled up — over the last two weeks.
The group has been so good that it has impacted not only the opposition’s offense but also its own offense.
“It’s not even so much what they did but how they did it,” center Corey Linsley said. “Just the energy they’ve had. You can feel it. They’ve had this attitude that they won’t be denied. That breeds so much confidence in the rest of us.”
Behind smothering defensive efforts in victories over Miami and Tennessee, the Chargers went from outside the playoffs to the brink of clinching a berth in what felt like just a few snaps.
ADVERTISEMENT
The reality is they won consecutive games over teams also competing to advance to the playoffs while everyone around them in the AFC standings stumbled.
Now, they travel to Indianapolis for a Monday night game in which they can secure a postseason spot with a victory.
Photo illustration of Los Angeles Chargers' Austin Ekeler
CHARGERS
How a need to succeed fueled Austin Ekeler’s Rocky Mountain climb to the NFL
Dec. 26, 2022
“That’s the whole purpose of playing football right now,” quarterback Justin Herbert said, “to be able to extend your season and to play well after what you’re guaranteed.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The Chargers’ latest opportunity comes against an opponent that has lost four in a row and seven of eight, that has an interim head coach and that is changing quarterbacks for the third time this season.
In their last two games, the Colts were outscored by Dallas in the fourth quarter 33-0 and blew a 33-0 halftime lead in an overtime loss to Minnesota. The latter was the greatest single-game collapse in NFL history.
A Chargers defense playing as well as it has all season will receive a boost Monday when Pro Bowl safety Derwin James Jr. returns after missing two games because of a quadriceps injury.
With James back, the Chargers will be as intact as they’ve been since early in the season, the team’s collective health rallying at the right time.
The fact the Chargers are favored by slightly more than a field goal speaks to the betting nation’s wobbly faith in them and the any-given-Monday nature of the league.
“Everyone’s talented,” Chargers defensive lineman Morgan Fox said. “If you start backing off or taking your foot off the gas, everyone in this business has the ability to jump right back in the game.