It’s remarkable how fast a great football coach can change a whole NFL franchise.
Nine months.
That’s how long it’s been since Jim Harbaugh took over the Chargers.
Yet it’s already a Harbaugh-style team, which is to say, it’s un-Chargers-like compared to most of the franchise’s squads since Marty Schottenheimer’s firing in early 2007.
The Chargers slam into opponents on offense and defense for the whole game, and show a strong punch in the second half.
What Harbaugh has done — with assists from star players he inherited — is turn the Chargers into a team like the Steelers, their opponent on Sunday.
The Chargers run the football often, throw it well enough and stop both the run and the pass.
They relish collisions.
So it’s shaping up as an Old School game in Steel City, where the playing surface, appropriately, is grass.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin will wear his military-style glasses and look like the baddest dude among NFL coaches.
He owns a Super Bowl ring, something Harbaugh lacks.
Both Tomlin and Harbaugh share cornerstone beliefs, starting with their commitment to physicality and toughness. The coaches have created environments that ceaselessly hone competitiveness.
The largest advantage for either team on Sunday may lie with the player who attracted Harbaugh to the Chargers.
Justin Herbert is a better quarterback than his Steelers counterpart Justin Fields.
But the high ankle sprain Herbert suffered last Sunday will reduce Herbert’s effectiveness and could create playing timing for a backup, be it Easton Stick or Taylor Heinicke.
All the more reason, then, for the Chargers to be grateful they stunk up last season so badly that John Spanos fired Brandon Staley and hired Harbaugh.
When a team limps at quarterback, having a defense and ground game to lean on becomes more important.
Because of Harbaugh, the Chargers look solid there.
Their defense beat up on a pair of bad offenses — the Raiders and then the Panthers — but the coordinator hired by Harbaugh, Jesse Minter, earned his paychecks.
The D stands first in points (6.5) and expected points per play.
The ground game designed by Greg Roman, another Harbaugh hire, stands first in yards after contact, second in yards per game (197.5), fourth in yards per carry (56) and fifth in rushing attempts and broken tackles.
J.K. Dobbins, signed by Joe Hortiz, the GM hired by Harbaugh, has outperformed his meager $1.6 million salary cap hit by leading the NFL in rushing yards (266) and yards per attempt (9.9).
The complementary fit looks sharp, too.
Chargers defenders should be fresher than most NFL counterparts. The unit’s average of 52.5 snaps per game is third-fewest in the league. Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack should have full tanks Sunday, having logged only 54 and 75 snaps, respectively.
Herbert’s load has been lightened, too.
The ground game hogs 59.7 percent of the offense’s plays, ranking behind only the Steelers (62.1 percent) and resurgent Saints (64.4 percent). A year ago the ground game’s was 39 percent, placing 27th.
Historical twist?
The Chargers will try to do the Steelers on Sunday what Tomlin’s Steelers did to them.
Twice, the Steelers beat the Chargers without a healthy Ben Roethlisberger.
In 2015, overcoming the limitations of 34-year-old QB Michael Vick, the Steelers won in San Diego on Le’Veon Bell’s 1-yard rushing TD in the final five seconds.
At the Carson soccer stadium in 2019, the Steelers pummeled Philip Rivers and many teammates. The bullying enabled the Stelers to win as 6.5-point underdogs.
Pittsburgh’s QB that day? Devlin Hodges, an undrafted rookie.
Sunday provides Harbaugh the type of bruising game the former NFL QB relishes.
Then there’s this: The winner will be 3-0 and holding an inside track to the AFC playoffs.