Chargers earn pristine grade after topping Chiefs on the road

Whenever you play one of the best teams in the NFL, you usually have to play your best game of the year to even have a shot at winning the game. Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened in Arrowhead on Sunday morning.

The Chargers took the ball away from the Chiefs four times, including one on each of the Chiefs’ first three drives. You can’t really draw it up much better than that.

Unsurprisingly, the Chargers received a pristine “A+” grade from CBS Sports’ John Breech who dishes out weekly performance grades every week for all 32 teams.

Here’s what he had to say about the Bolts and the phenomenal job they did in containing Kansas City:

“Justin Herbert threw four touchdown passes on the road as the Chargers announced to the Chiefs they’ll be fighting for that AFC West title. Herbert and the Chargers withstood every blow the Chiefs fired at them in this one, taking two fourth-quarter leads en route to the win — at Arrowhead Stadium no less. The Chargers revamped defense forced four turnovers that kept the Chiefs to 24 points, and kept the Chargers in the game. Mike Williams had 112 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the big-play receiver the franchise thought they were getting when Los Angeles selected him in the first round five years ago. Brandon Staley played to win the game with plenty of aggressive calls on the winning drive that paid off — making his reputation felt across the league as a gutsy coach that knows his players. This is a good Chargers team and while the win is shocking — it shouldn’t come as a surprise Los Angeles is playing this well.”

The Chargers will look to have an encore performance on defense with the surprisingly high-flying Raiders offense on tap for Monday night. Las Vegas is currently averaging a league-high 471.0 yards of offense per game with 379.7 of that coming through the air. If the Chargers secondary thought they were getting a break, they’re in for some unfortunate news. This isn’t your father’s Raiders team where the entire offense was predicated off of their ground game. Running the ball has been an afterthought this year and the Bolts should expect more of the same this week.