There is something perfectly beautiful about the Chargers calling and Justin Herbert uncorking a bomb half the field in length on a third-and-10 with less than two minutes remaining when all they needed was to drain the clock and pin a backup quarterback deep into his own territory.
It is a tacit acknowledgment that Things Get Weird with the Chargers. If there is even a percentage chance that some strange, rarer-than-a-Peacock-spider moment can happen, the Chargers draw it in cosmically. There are fans of teams who can joke half-heartedly about their teams’ penchant for playing in unusual games, and then there are fans of the Chargers, who are too stricken with hangover panic from the week before to even talk about it. No lead is safe, and that has been true since well before the Brandon Staley era started.
But the throw was also a warm embrace of this same idea. While I firmly believe that at some point this season the Chargers will round into form and end the season as a static unit that does not induce panic, they will celebrate the fact that it happens and that they must plan for the football equivalent of a tear in the multiverse each week. They have a quarterback with a big, beautiful arm and a cadre of receivers who, even without Mike Williams, can challenge all corners of the field.
