3. Defense shines vs. Steelers
Harbaugh raved about the defense’s performance in primetime against Pittsburgh.
“I thought it was probably our best game, most complete game,” he said.
The numbers back that up.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Bolts posted a defensive EPA per play of -0.379 on Sunday night, which was their best mark of the 2025 season to date. (The previous best came in Week 8’s win against the Vikings at -0.335).
Sunday night’s effort saw the Chargers defense allow just 221 yards, 156 of which came before a Steelers garbage-time touchdown drive.
The unit also held Pittsburgh to just 2-of-11 on third downs — including an 0-for-9 start — while tallying three sacks, two takeaways and limiting the Steelers to just 73 rushing yards.
“Most consistent, especially great on third down. The obvious one there we were nine stops in a row to start the game,” Harbaugh said. “The takeaways, the rush and coverage was coordinated really well, tight coverage.
“Guys stepping up and making plays. The pressure, those two things were really coordinated well,” Harbaugh added. “Then, tackle. Much improved tackling.”
Harbaugh lauded the play of Denzel Perryman, Khalil Mack, Da’Shawn Hand and Daiyan Henley — among others — for their strong and physical play against the Steelers.
The Chargers dominant effort in Week 10 continued a bounce back trend after the unit dipped a bit in early October.
According to PFF, the Chargers lead the NFL in defensive EPA per play of -0.333 during their three-game win streak.
“We just pointed out: you get together, you meet, you talk about it,” Harbaugh said. “Jesse [Minter] did a great job of noticing that sometimes guys are trying to do their job plus somebody else’s job, get out of a gap and it creates a crease.
“I think guys seeing it, realizing it and putting an emphasis on it. They’ve done a tremendous job of improving,” Harbaugh added. “That’s just the prerequisite of being better. Better tomorrow than we were today, and I think our guys have attacked that and it’s been good for us.”