Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers start rewriting record book in rout of Panthers

Bank of America Stadium rises from the center of Charlotte’s Uptown district like a teal-colored fortress. For Jim Harbaugh, the building brings back memories both good and bad.

It’s where he suited up for his final season as a quarterback, standing on the sidelines for six games without throwing a pass for a team that went 1-15. But that lost season also convinced him to become a coach, and a dozen years later he came back to Carolina to win his last playoff game as an NFL head coach.

Harbaugh made another happy — and historic — homecoming Sunday, this time roaming the sidelines for the Chargers, who routed the Panthers 26-3 before 74,000 mostly empty seats.

The return was historic because just two weeks into the Harbaugh Era, the Chargers already are rewriting their record books.

Read more: Jim Harbaugh’s long connection with quarterbacks a hit with Chargers’ Justin Herbert

By running for 131 yards, J.K. Dobbins became the first Chargers’ back — and the first AFC player in a decade — to open a season with back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances.

The team is 2-0 to start a season for the first time since 2012, five years before it left San Diego, and the win was also the Chargers’ first in Carolina and just second in eight meetings against the Panthers.

Although Harbaugh said he was aware of the history, he’s not celebrating anything yet.

“Just take it one day at a time and keep attacking what you’re doing,” he said. “I think that’s how our guys approach it.”

Well, not every guy. For center Bradley Bozeman, who already has won as many games this season as he did last season as a member of the Panthers, the kind of history the Chargers are making isn’t just about the past. It’s bodes well for the future too.

“We have a good opportunity to be special,” Bozeman said. “We started off 2-0, [but] you can’t look to the past and what you’ve done. You’ve got to go to the future.

Read more: It’s a complex world for Chargers rookies adjusting to life in the NFL and big city

“I don’t take it lightly at all. Wins in this league are hard to come by.”

Not when you’re playing like the Chargers, whose balanced offense also got an efficient afternoon from quarterback Justin Herbert, who completed 14 of 20 passes for 130 yards and found Quentin Johnston for a pair of first-half touchdowns.

One of the league’s worst rushing offenses since Herbert joined the team in 2020, in two games under new offensive coordinator Greg Roman the Chargers have gained more yards on the ground (395) than in the air (274).

“Having a balance — run, pass, play-action — having everything in our arsenal, defenses have to play us straight up,” said Herbert, who left the stadium with a limp after rolling an ankle late in the game. “We’ve done a great job of running the first couple of games. [But] there’s a lot of room for improvement for us as an offense.”

The Chargers basically put the game away on their opening drive, marching 67 yards on nine plays, the last a 29-yard pass to Johnston one play after an Eric Tomlinson fumble at the Carolina 24 was ruled an incomplete pass.

Herbert and Johnston hooked up again on a five-yard touchdown pass to double the lead with 4:16 left in the second quarter. A little more than two minutes later, the Chargers upped the lead to 20-0 on a 43-yard Dobbins’ dash.

Dobbins — limited to just 100 carries with Baltimore the last three seasons because of injuries to his ACL, meniscus, LCL, hamstring and Achilles — ended the run with a somersault across the goal line.

“That’s something I’ve never been able to do. I’ve always admired people that could do that,” Harbaugh said.

“To watch him come back even stronger, quicker, faster than before the injury is a testament to his will. A lesser man would not have been able to do what J.K. has been able to do.”

Aside from the somersault, however, Dobbins said he isn’t celebrating anything yet either.

“We’ve got to keep getting better. That wasn’t our best.” he said. “We’re going to keep getting better each and every week. We’re been working for this. We have a chemistry that’s really good.”

Carolina showed a bit of life on its first drive of the second half with a 38-yard Eddy Piñeiro field goal to make  it 20-3, but Cameron Dicker, who missed the first extra point of his career in the first quarter, doubled that with a pair of second-half field goals to account for the final score.

Read more: 🏈 Chargers-Panthers summary

If the Chargers’ quick start has given Harbaugh and Co. reason to be optimistic, the winless Panthers appear to be in for another long season. Carolina, which hasn’t had a winning record since 2017, has been outscored 73-13 in its two losses.

On Sunday, Carolina went three and out on its first four possessions, converted just one of 13 third-down tries and was penalized nine times for 90 yards before the half-empty stadium chased the team to the locker room with a cascade of boos.

The Chargers, meanwhile, left Bank of America Stadium riding some history — but looking to make more.

“Wherever the chips fall at the end of the the season is where the chips fall,” Bozeman said. “We’ll find out where we are in December, January.

“So we’re just gonna keep rocking it out and keep going.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.