Jim Harbaugh beats another Ohio team in Ohio thanks to stingy Chargers defense

Another team coached by Jim Harbaugh invaded Ohio and beat an Ohio team. Only this time, his team had Justin Herbert. The Chargers quarterback authored a historic, 27-10 road win over the Browns to move Los Angeles (5-3) into second place in the AFC West.

En route to a perfect first-half passer rating, Herbert engineered three touchdown drives, including a gorgeous 66-yard strike to Quentin Johnston, to separate from the Browns before intermission. The quarterback finished 18 of 27 for 282 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, compiling a 125.8 passer rating. It was his 29^th career game with at least two touchdown passes and a passer rating of 100-or-higher, matching Deshaun Watson (29) for the second-most such games over a player’s first five seasons in league history. Only Patrick Mahomes (35) had more.

The ability to execute explosive plays is an important sign that Keenan Allen and Mike Williams aren’t even in Herbert’s rear-view mirror.

“Understand the looks we could get on defense, the coverages we could expect and see,” Herbert explained after overcoming a Browns defense that sacked him six times, three by Myles Garrett. “Having a receiver group that can communicate and understand where we’re going with the ball.

“When everyone is on the same page, we’re able to do things like that. Our whole emphasis is to push the ball downfield and then taking our shots and being smart with the ball.”

Harbaugh’s defense was smart when the Browns had the ball. Thwarting a Cleveland club (2-7) that upset Baltimore the week before, the Chargers got their own six-pack of sacks – including a career-high 2½ from Tuli Tuipulotu — and intercepted Jameis Winston three times. One of those came after Tarheeb Still assisted Elijah Molden in the third quarter, on a tipped pass in the end zone.

Los Angeles, which has allowed an NFL-low 12.6 points per game, became only the sixth team since 1990 to give up no more than 20 points in each of its first eight games of a season. The Chargers joined the 1990 New York Giants (first 10 games), 1999 Jacksonville Jaguars (nine), 2013 Kansas City Chiefs (nine), 1991 Kansas City Chiefs (eight) and 2019 New England Patriots (eight).

Even the Chargers’ special-teams units contributed to the win. Los Angeles drew first blood on Herbert’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Palmer, a play set up by a 55-yard Derius Davis punt return.

Now, in what figures to be one of the NFL’s lowest-scoring affairs, the Chargers host Tennessee (2-6) fresh off a 20-17 overtime win. While Los Angeles owns the NFL’s top scoring defense, the Titans have owned the league’s No. 1 total defense for much of the season, allowing an NFL-low 269.1 yards per game entering their Week 10 trip to SoFi Stadium.