4 winners (and 2 losers) from the Chargers' dominant 26-3 win over Panthers

The LA Chargers' season has gotten off to about as good of a start as one could hope for. They team has won each of its first two games by double digits to start the Jim Harbaugh era. While the Carolina Panthers are struggling for numerous reasons, a 26-3 road win while traveling from the West Coast to the East Coast is still impressive.

The last time Los Angeles allowed 10 points or fewer in back-to-back games was the Colts and Rams games towards the end of the 2022 season. Prior to that, you'd have to go back to the 2017 season. Regardless of the opponent, that's not something that happens particularly often in the league.

Harbaugh and Greg Roman's physical identity has carried the Chargers through their first two games to great effect. And there's no better player representative of that vision than the first winner of the day:

Chargers winner: J.K. Dobbins

J.K. Dobbins is the first Chargers' running back since LaDainian Tomlinson to register back-to-back games of 130+ yards. He's the first since Melvin Gordon in 2018 to put up back to back 100+ yard rushing performances. The former Ravens' back has set the tone in the rushing attack more than anyone could've realistically expected.

Aaron Rodgers via "The Pat McAfee Show" earlier this week talked about how Dobbins was still constantly in a good mood during Achilles rehab. HC Jim Harbaugh spoke yesterday about just how grueling it is for an elite athlete like Dobbins to get back to his top level after an injury of that caliber. He continues to defy the odds.

Another aspect of this is that Dobbins isn't getting carried either. He's the one fueling the rushing attack. LA ranks only 24th in rush play success rate but is 9th in rush EPA/play. The quick cuts and decision-making at the line of scrimmage in addition to his burst are fueling the offense.

During the halftime break, part of me still found myself wondering he could keep it up for a full four quarters. After 85 yards in the first two quarters, Dobbins immediately broke off carries of 14 and 15 yards on the Chargers' first third-quarter drive to get into field goal range.

Whether he can hold the same level of production through 17 games is yet to be seen. But Dobbins is off to an absolutely historic start that rivals the best running backs in team history.

Chargers loser: RB Gus Edwards

For as big of a win as it was for Dobbins, it was more of a struggle for Gus Edwards. Edwards totaled just 59 yards on 18 attempts. While there were some four to five plus yard carries mixed in, he looked just a step slow in approaching the line.

The vision was just a little bit off relative to what we've seen from Edwards throughout his career. There were a few plays where he just ran behind the line in suboptimal positions as opposed to taking a hole or following blockers.

It will eventually get better for Edwards throughout the season as he's forced into more short-yardage situations. But 2.9 yards per carry through the season's first two games is probably not how he saw things playing out.

Chargers winner: CB Kristian Fulton

It was another positive week for Kristian Fulton. The Tennessee reclamation project had two or three pretty big stops on third downs in addition to a pass deflection.

Fulton is an example of what DC Jesse Minter has been trying to instill into this defense with quick decision-making and great reads. Every significant screen play the Panthers tried yesterday felt like it was immediately snuffed out by the Chargers for the most part. And Fulton was a huge part of that process with his play.

He hasn't been tested all that much in a vertical sense yet, but Fulton has gone above and beyond my expectations for him to this point. Just execute and don't give up big yardage that could've been prevented via missed tackles. Fulton had just one missed tackle last week and gave a similar effort this time out.

Chargers loser: TE Hayden Hurst

Will Dissly is comfortably the team's TE1 right now and it does feel like Hayden Hurst is losing some ground in the position group. Hurst had a drop in this game that was called back by a penalty on a catchable pass from Justin Herbert. Speaking of getting plays called back, Hurst committed a holding penalty later on that took a nice Quentin Johnston jet sweep gain off the board.

Like with Edwards in the running back room, my belief is Hurst will eventually find his footing. But he hasn't exactly shown up in a noticeable way for an offense that is asking a number of people to contribute more as receivers.

Chargers winner: WR Quentin Johnston

From a gaining confidence angle, nobody was a bigger winner than Quentin Johnston. Getting the explosive pass play monkey off of his back immediately with a well-leveraged route on Jaycee Horn for a score was great. It might've been the best 1 on 1 matchup win of Johnston's career.

Johnston then matched his 2023 total for touchdowns with a wide-open catch in the endzone for his second score. As mentioned in the first play, QJ is certainly not quite used to getting open as efficiently as he did in this game.

Whether Johnston is a truly playable X-receiver against more physical teams will still be a question mark. But he's done everything that the Chargers have asked him to do incredibly well so far.

Johnston even looked a little flashy on the open-field jet sweep that picked up some nice yardage before being negated by the aforementioned holding penalty. It does feel like Johnston is more confident in his movement on the field than before.

Chargers winner: S Elijah Molden

Elijah Molden notched his first Chargers' interception right before halftime. It was a big play in the course of the game as LA was then able to extend their lead from two to three scores on the ensuing drive with a 43-yard Dobbins dash.

A lot has been asked of Molden in a relatively short 2.5 week period since his trade from Tennessee. Not only did he have to learn the playbook and find his fit within the defense quickly, but he also had to step up for an injured Alohi Gilman in his second game.

If Molden continues to play the way he has after Gilman returns, it'll be fair to say that the Chargers haven't had this level of competent depth in the safety room in quite some time.