Sorting the NFL Sunday Pile, Week 2: Chargers have gone full Harbaugh, Saints offense revived under Kubiak

My favorite random Jim Harbaugh story: When Harbaugh showed up to the 49ers back in 2011, embattled quarterback Alex Smith exacerbated his poor play by angering the Niners fan base by wearing a San Diego Padres hat. Early in the season, Smith randomly switched it up and started wearing a San Francisco Giants hat. It’s not something a lifelong, diehard Padres fan would do, but Harbaugh believes in making easy, small changes that make a team and its players better. Smith getting the fan base off his back for his baseball fandom is a galaxy brain move, but it helped! His play improved too and Smith would help lead the 49ers to the NFC title game in Harbaugh’s first year. 

I give you that out-of-nowhere Harbaugh account here because I believe the Chargers, much like the Niners, are now fully Harbaughized. Like those San Francisco teams, the Chargers were a talent-rich team that couldn’t get out of its own way. And like those Niners teams — and every Harbaugh team, really — the Chargers are now a physical, run-first, mistake-free, defensive team attacking each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. 

They’re now 2-0 under Harbaugh after squishing the lowly Panthers 26-3 and while you can nitpick the level of competition through two weeks, what you can’t nitpick is the difference in what we’re seeing from Los Angeles under its new coach. 

J.K. Dobbins, riddled with injuries throughout his career until this year, went wild again, rushing 17 times for 131 yards and a score. Quentin Johnston was left for dead after being listed fourth on the depth chart in the preseason; he’s looked really good two games into the season and hauled in a pair of Justin Herbert touchdown passes on Sunday. Herbert’s stats are suppressed through two games, but he has been extremely efficient, going 14 or 20 on Sunday for 130 yards and the two tosses to his speedy wideout. 

Herbert’s presence causes people to suggest the Chargers should have a Chiefs-like, “Star Wars” type of offense. I’m not opposed to it but Herbert’s explosive performances were mostly fueled by the Chargers’ lack of ability to control games. They let the Raiders — who looked quite frisky in beating the other Harbaugh’s Ravens on Sunday — hang around for a half before pulling away. Against Carolina, it was never close. 

Peak at the stats from the 49ers start to the season in 2011 and it’s not that different. Smith wasn’t winging it around and the Niners didn’t begin the season dominant on offense (began 1-1 with an OT loss to a very good Cowboys team in Week 2). Later in the year they started flying a little higher and were hot heading into the playoffs.

We’ll see if anyone’s got it better than the Chargers over the next few weeks, but right now the answer is a resounding NOOOOOBODY. The worm has indeed turned.

Saints offense marching under KubiakThe vibes around the New Orleans Saints couldn’t have felt worse coming into the season. Dennis Allen was clearly under the hot seat and it showed during some of his press conferences. The change at offensive coordinator — from Pete Carmichael to Klint Kubiak — was intriguing but under the radar. It shouldn’t be anymore after the 44-19 whipping New Orleans put on the Cowboys on Sunday to improve to 2-0.

Derek Carr was superb once again, validating an A+ performance from Week 1 over the lowly Panthers by lighting up Mike Zimmer’s defense for 243 yards and a pair of scores on just 16 attempts. The pre-snap motion and play action, not big staples of the previous offensive regime, are not just analytically sound, but also mesh well with Carr’s game.  

Once upon a time, Matt Schaub led the NFL in passing yards for an explosive Texans team. His coach? Gary Kubiak, Klint’s dad. Sometimes coaches — and schemes — meet up with particular quarterbacks later in their careers and you get a perfect meshing of skillsets. We might be seeing that with Carr, who two very dangerous weapons in Chris Olave (who has yet to really get going) and deep threat Rasheed Shaheed. 

The Saints offensive line was a huge concern coming into the season, but Carr has been protected well and Alvin Kamara was running free Sunday, racking up 115 yards and three scores on the ground (plus one more through the air) in what looked like a vintage Kamara performance.

New Orleans scored on all nine of its drives with Carr under center last week against Carolina and scored on its first six drives against Dallas Sunday, meaning they put up points in a ridiculous 15 straight drives to start the season. Carr has uncorked some heretofore unseen level of swag, culminating in some kind of Michael Jackson-esque end zone dance after plunging in for a rushing score to go up 35-13 at the end of the first half.

The second half wasn’t quite as explosive or efficient but the Saints defense took care of snuffing out any prayer the Cowboys had for coming back by picking off Dak Prescott twice and shutting down the Dallas offense. 

I was supremely confident the Cowboys would make Week 1 for the Saints look like an aberration. And I was pretty sure the Saints would struggle this season to produce points. Two weeks in I look very stupid on both counts. We’ve seen Carr start hot before, including his first season with the Saints. But the changes they’ve made on offense could result in a sustained improvement on offense, which would put New Orleans very much in the mix in a winnable division.  

KOC becoming a QB whispererHere’s a hot take for you: Kevin O’Connell is a top-five coach in the NFL right now. The Vikings, at 2-0 after a pretty stunning victory over a truckstick 49ers team, have matriculated their way through two weeks with Sam Darnold playing great football. That’s no small thing, either. 

Darnold is now on his fourth NFL team, having busted with the Jets, washed out with the Panthers and spent time behind Brock Purdy in San Francisco. That pressure-free year working with Kyle Shanahan certainly helped, but we simply cannot ignore O’Connell’s magical quarterback powers any longer. 

KOC arrived in Minnesota two years ago and immediately got the best out of Kirk Cousins, with the Vikings going 13-4 in O’Connell’s inaugural season there. Last year’s injury to Cousins led to a 7-10 record and an offseason reset at the position, but KOC got the most out of Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens in difficult conditions. J.J. McCarthy’s preseason injury was brutal, but the Vikings were prepared with Darnold in place as a backup.

Just how prepared we didn’t know. After an impressive effort in Week 1 that featured a number of big-time throws even if it wasn’t statistically explosive, Darnold turned in another strong outing against his old team. San Francisco’s defense ain’t no joke and Darnold still managed to 17-for-26 with 268 yards and a pair of scores, including a DEEP bomb to Justin “I’m not Garrett Wilson” Jefferson. 

Jefferson did plenty of work but for Darnold to hit that kind of shot play from that spot on the field against such a stout defense? You would have had a difficult time selling people on it happening 18 months ago and maybe even a month ago. 

Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports. It magnifies the good and the bad annually for almost every single NFL team. KOC has worked with good quarterbacks plenty and done well, but his success making chicken salad out of a less appetizing array of ingredients make him an incredibly value property. 

Quick hittersLet’s give Baker Mayfield some credit. Or Todd Bowles. Or Jason Licht. Or whomever you want with the Buccaneers. They were left for dead when Tom Brady bounced out of town and promptly won the division. Then they were left for dead when — lol — Dave Canales left for Carolina. They’re 2-0 now after winning in Detroit and the offense, while not perfect, looks pretty darn good. Graham Barfield is a huge addition on the offensive line. Liam Cohen’s using Chris Godwin more in the slot and the results have been very strong so far. There’s a plethora of weapons for Baker to use and he’s clearly beloved by this team. He fits the culture perfectly and the Bucs once again look like a front-runner in the NFC South after a massive road win. The Giants might stink. OK, the Giants stink. They didn’t allow the Commanders to score a touchdown on Sunday, scored three touchdowns of their own and still managed to lose the game. Not great! But there’s a silver lining as well, because Malik Nabers is absolutely incredible. The quarterbacks in this rookie draft class really cloud our perception of the player selections but Sunday was a great reminder how good the top-end receivers taken were. Marvin Harrison went OFF and Nabers had himself a pretty nice game as well. 
He’s going to struggle for portions of this season because his quarterback is Daniel Jones and the Giants offense isn’t great. But Nabers is the focal point of the offense and is a problem both before … 

… and after the catch.

He’s incredibly explosive, runs great routes and has speed to burn. Nabers and Marv are going to be awesome to watch for the next decade. Now let’s get this kid a quarterback! 

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reported before Sunday’s Packers game to “expect a lot” of Josh Jacobs. Tom was not joking! With Jordan Love injured, the Packers FED Jacobs to the tune of 32 carries for 151 yards. Jacobs didn’t find the end zone, but his performance was a credit to Matt LaFleur and a really good reminder we can’t always make assumptions about coaching based on what we’ve seen in the past. LaFleur used a committee back with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon largely because he believed Jones was most effective in that role. The Packers paid Jacobs this offseason and thus far have used him like they believe he’s a bona fide bell cow. For the last six quarters he has looked fantastic running the ball and as long as he’s healthy, I’d posit Jacobs will be the focal point of this offense and help Green Bay navigate through the Jordan Love injury.