The Chargers came into Sunday’s game with two straight losses and without some key players.
Left tackle Rashawn Slater and defensive end Joey Bosa went on injured reserve last week and wide receiver Keenan Allen missed his third straight game with an ankle injury, but they had enough in the tank to outlast the Texans for a 34-24 victory. Running back Austin Ekeler had a big hand in the win by running for two touchdowns and catching another one on a pass from Justin Herbert.
Ekeler told reporters after the game that he thinks dealing with the bad news on the injury front, which also included fractured rib cartilage for Herbert, is something that will serve the Chargers well in the long run.
“Yeah I feel like we’re a team that I feel like we have faced some adversity, which in my opinion, is the best way to start a season because it’s going to tell you a lot about your team, how you’re going to be able to respond, if you’re going to be able to, can you put up some type of production when you come off of a hard loss, or tough loss, or team loss like we did,” Ekeler said, via the team’s website. “I feel like we were able to put something together today even though it was still a battle. Ended up getting what I felt like was a team win, so it’s good to get back on the right track. We’re trying to go on a run here, always starts with the first one so now we got one, and we have to do it again.”
Recent Chargers teams have not found the right formula for sidestepping negative developments and finding their way to the postseason, but we’ll see if Ekeler is right about this year’s early pains giving way to better results.