Heading into Week 1 of this 2026 NFL regular season, we're pretty certain that it's safe to say that not too many people saw the Los Angeles Chargers getting absolutely embarrassed by the Arizona Cardinals.
With all due respect to Mike LaFleur's group, most preseason predictions we ran across didn't see the Cards winning more than a handful of games, and when we looked at the final Super Bowl 61 odds leading into the new campaign, Arizona was sitting all the way down at the very bottom, ranking dead last in 32nd at +50000 to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, while the Bolts sat in a tie for sixth at +1700.
But that's why you play the games, right? And the Cardinals undoubtedly deserve all the credit in the world for their 26-14 victory, as the fact of the matter is that they simply dominated the Chargers in every facet of the game. Naturally, one of the big reasons Arizona pulled off the upset was the play of quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who Los Angeles let look like prime Philip Rivers, as the 11th-year veteran completed 27 of 37 passes for 277 yards with a touchdown and zero interceptions.
The Chargers are set to face another veteran in Week 2, as they host Kirk Cousins and the Las Vegas Raiders, who kicked off the Klint Kubiak era with a 27-13 win over the Miami Dolphins. And if the Bolts want to avoid an 0-2 start, they actually might want to think about letting Cousins air it out a little bit. That might seem counterproductive, as Brissett burned them on several occasions down the field, but let us run through some numbers, and you'll see what we mean.
Raiders QB Kirk Cousins was dreadful against the Dolphins when he threw the ball 10 yards or longer
There's no getting around the fact that the Chargers couldn't stop Brissett no matter where he threw the football, which obviously isn't what you want to see from a defense that ranked fifth in the NFL against the pass a season ago.
On passes within the numbers and also within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, the 33-year-old completed 16 of 18 throws for 134 yards. And when he threw the ball 10 or more yards through the air downfield, he completed six of nine passes for 113 yards.
Meanwhile, in the Raiders' victory over the Dolphins, Cousins also found success in the middle of the field, going 9-for-11 for 86 yards and three touchdowns on throws within the numbers and within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, earning a passer rating of 138.8 in that regard. But on throws of 10 yards or more, the four-time Pro Bowler connected on only one of seven passes for 21 yards and tossed two interceptions.
Of course, to get Cousins to throw the ball downfield on Sunday afternoon at SoFi, Chris O'Leary's defense has to come out quick and prove it can lock down the middle of the field. Because if the Chargers can't do that, there's simply no reason for the Raiders to even call for throws down the field. The Cardinals' offense controlled the football for 37:31 last Sunday, and converting those short throws, especially on third down, is a big reason why Arizona won that football game.
We'll find out soon enough if the Chargers have learned anything over this last week. Because if they haven't, as already said, they could easily start this season at 0-2.
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