Monday arrived at Chargers Park and with it, a big dose of hope.
The San Diego Chargers enjoyed their Victory Monday, having an easy day after a thrilling 21-13 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
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Monday arrived at Chargers Park and with it, a big dose of hope. The San Diego Chargers enjoyed their Victory Monday, having an easy day after a thrilling 21-13 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Win No. 5 was one more than last year's 4-12 pileup of a season. And win No. 2 on the road doubled the amount last year's bunch collected.
But more than the hard numbers was the breezy way a belief seeped back into the facility. A team that was left for dead more than once before December is promising to make things interesting.
The Chargers (5-6) still have much work to do and that could mean sweeping the final five games to have a sniff at the playoffs. But at least there's a chance, which wouldn't haven't been the case if the Chargers had exited their bye and delivered a dud.
Instead the defense stood tall, the offense did enough with three big plays and the result was the Chargers kicking dirt from their grave.
"A solid overall team performance," head coach Mike McCoy said, still savoring the win. "Number of little things to clean up; proud of players stepping up."
Quarterback Philip Rivers is always sunny. But he realizes the significance of Sunday's triumph.
"We have a chance now," he said. "We have a chance to get to 6-6 ... "
Rivers dreams of the Chargers remaining on a winning path and somehow sneaking into the playoffs as an AFC wild-card team. For a squad that leans so much on Rivers, it was a change of pace to hear so much about the defense. But that was how disruptive rookie defensive end Joey Bosa was in leading the unit. It also showed what Bosa could mean down the stretch -- he was all over the field on Sunday.
"He has a little bit of J.J. Watt in him," Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward said.
Why?
"Motor," Hayward said.
The Chargers are revved. They've got the Buccaneers at home on Sunday, and on Monday, the feeling was they can add to a resurgence that has seen them win three of their last four games.
After losing their outing to Miami going into the bye, the Chargers rebounded.
"(It was) the mindset, the attitude they came back with," McCoy stressed.
There's still plenty of pressure-filled football left. For the Chargers, that's a good thing. That translates into the Chargers' games meaning something.
If they would have lost on Sunday, that likely wouldn't be the case. Instead, McCoy said his team had "had a little more pep in our step" on Sunday.
That went for Monday as well.