An end to the shutdown?
Not for the Chargers, whose defense put the clamps on the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 25-10 victory before a sea of black-and-gold-clad fans and a national TV audience.
Neither team had many offensive highlights — or first downs, for that matter — but the Chargers did enough to win their third game in a row, something they hadn’t done since the first three games of the season.
You might call the Chargers inhospitable, seeing as the Steelers came into the game averaging 25.3 points. You might call the Steelers inhospitable for filling SoFi Stadium with Pittsburgh fans.
The Terrible Towels were everywhere, but there were precious few opportunities to swirl them. By the fourth quarter, thousands of those fans were streaming for the exits. The Steelers were held to 11 first downs, converted two of 11 third downs and generated 221 total yards.
Aaron Rodgers looked every bit of his 41 years. He was sacked three times, intercepted twice, brought down in the end zone for a safety and he finished with an anemic passer rating of 50.6.
The Steelers looked nothing like the team that forced six turnovers against Indianapolis the week before and handed the Colts just their second loss.
In the waning moments, Keenan Allen caught a pop pass and ran seven yards to become the Chargers’ all-time receptions leader (956), surpassing Hall of Fame tight end Antonio Gates.
Rodgers couldn’t establish anything close to an offensive rhythm, and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert took an all-too-familiar beating, playing behind an offensive line that has had 19 different combinations this season.
Herbert was sacked five times, a week after the Tennessee Titans got to him six times.
Chargers linebacker Bud Dupree dances after sacking Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Steelers scored first with a 59-yard field goal by Chris Boswell in the opening quarter, but after that it was virtually all Chargers. Cameron Dicker had three field goals, and Ladd McConkey and Kimani Vidal scored touchdowns.
Rodgers threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Roman Wilson with 2 minutes 57 seconds remaining, but that was merely a cosmetic score that made the game appear a bit closer.
Herbert took a hit from behind in the second quarter, was slow to his feet and got both ankles taped on the sideline.
According to NBC, he came into the game having been pressured an average of 17 times per game, more than any other quarterback this season, and having absorbed an average of nine hits per game, second-highest for an NFL quarterback in the last 20 seasons.
The Chargers were coming off a win at Tennessee in which they lost left tackle Joe Alt, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury. The team traded for New Orleans offensive lineman Trevor Penning last week.
Even though they leaned into a bunch of quick-developing pass plays to get the ball out of Herbert’s hands quickly, the Chargers still saw their quarterback knocked down time and again. His passes were batted down at the line of scrimmage too, with one winding up back in Herbert’s hands for a reception (although that was wiped out by a Pittsburgh penalty).
The Chargers’ defense got to Rodgers as well, putting the first points on the scoreboard for the home team by sacking the future Hall of Famer in the end zone.
The Chargers next head to Jacksonville. The Jaguars, who got off to a 4-1 start, have lost three of four.
Jacksonville is the site of a horrible memory for the Chargers, who blew a 27-point lead there to suffer a one-point loss in a January 2023 playoff game.