“They’re the Team That Fooled Everyone in Week 1” — And NFL Fans Keep Naming One Team

One week of NFL football can make an entire offseason look ridiculous.

For months, fans hear about which teams improved, which coaches are going to change everything and which contenders are ready to make a serious run. Then the games finally start, and sometimes it takes about three hours for all of that optimism to disappear.

After Week 1, one team deserves more skepticism than almost anyone else: the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Chargers opened their season against an Arizona Cardinals team that entered 2026 with significantly lower expectations. Instead of Los Angeles looking like the established contender, Arizona walked away with a convincing 26-14 victory.

It wasn’t just an upset. It was the type of performance that immediately makes you reconsider what you thought you knew about a team.

Los Angeles Was Supposed to Be Better Than This

The Chargers weren’t entering Week 1 as some rebuilding team trying to figure everything out.

There were legitimate expectations surrounding them.

Before the game, NFL.com’s Week 1 picks included a prediction describing Los Angeles as being in position for one of the week’s more lopsided victories. The reasoning wasn’t difficult to understand. Justin Herbert was entering another season as the franchise quarterback, and Mike McDaniel had taken over the offense.

Arizona, meanwhile, was beginning a new era under head coach Mike LaFleur.

On paper, that looked like a game Los Angeles should control.

Instead, Arizona controlled Los Angeles.

The Cardinals won 26-14 and held the Chargers to 268 total yards and only 17 first downs. Arizona’s defense also produced three sacks and forced two turnovers.

That’s not the performance people expected from a Chargers offense with Herbert at quarterback.

Arizona Didn’t Steal the Game

This is what should concern Chargers fans the most.

Sometimes a favorite loses because of one strange turnover, a missed field goal or a ridiculous bounce.

That isn’t really what happened here.

Arizona played like the better football team.

NFL.com described the result as the “stunner of the week,” noting that the surprising part wasn’t simply Arizona winning. It was how much of the game the Cardinals controlled.

That distinction matters.

Los Angeles didn’t dominate for three quarters and accidentally give the game away at the end. Arizona’s offensive line held up, its defense disrupted Herbert, and its special teams even blocked a punt.

It was a complete win.

And for a Chargers team with expectations of competing deep into the season, that’s an uncomfortable way to begin.

Justin Herbert Can’t Fix Everything

Any discussion about the Chargers eventually comes back to Herbert.

He’s talented enough that Los Angeles is going to have a chance in plenty of games this season. Nobody should seriously decide what Herbert or the Chargers are after one afternoon.

But Week 1 exposed some problems around him.

Herbert was sacked three times and intercepted, while Los Angeles produced only 81 rushing yards. The Chargers struggled to consistently control the game offensively.

That’s a dangerous formula.

If Los Angeles expects Herbert to rescue the offense every week while dealing with pressure and receiving little help from the running game, this could become a frustrating season quickly.

Herbert has been in the NFL long enough that the conversation can’t always be about potential anymore.

Eventually, the Chargers have to become the team people keep expecting them to be.

This Is Why Week 1 Fools Everyone

There is another side to this argument.

Maybe Los Angeles didn’t fool anyone.

Maybe Week 1 did.

Opening weekend produces wild results every season. Teams have months to prepare for one opponent, new coaches introduce systems nobody has regular-season film on, and starters are increasingly playing limited preseason snaps.

NFL.com made exactly that broader point after this year’s opener: one game is an extremely small sample, and teams that look great in September can collapse while teams that struggle immediately can eventually find their rhythm.

That’s fair.

The Chargers could respond in Week 2 and make this entire conversation look premature.

But that’s also why their performance deserves attention.

Nobody is saying Los Angeles’ season is finished after one loss.

The question is whether the version of the Chargers everyone expected to see actually exists.

There Were Other Candidates

Los Angeles isn’t the only team that deserves criticism after Week 1.

Green Bay deserves consideration after one of the weekend’s ugliest collapses.

The Packers led Minnesota 22-10 late in the third quarter. They then allowed the Vikings to score the final 29 points of the game and lost 39-22.

That’s brutal.

Miami also opened with a disappointing 27-13 loss to Las Vegas, while Dallas fell 28-20 to the Giants on Sunday night.

There are plenty of fanbases waking up after Week 1 wondering whether they spent the offseason believing something that wasn’t true.

But the Chargers stand out because of the gap between expectation and reality.

Now They Have to Prove Week 1 Was the Lie

This is where things get interesting.

If Los Angeles responds immediately, Week 1 becomes nothing more than one ugly afternoon.

Great teams lose games they’re expected to win. Great quarterbacks have bad performances. New offenses sometimes need time.

But if the same problems keep appearing — Herbert under pressure, an ineffective running game and an offense that doesn’t consistently produce despite its talent — people are going to stop calling Arizona’s victory an upset.

They’re going to start calling it a warning.

That’s the danger for Los Angeles.

The Chargers spent the offseason looking like a team capable of making noise in the AFC. Their first opportunity to prove it ended with a 12-point home loss to a Cardinals team almost nobody expected to beat them.

One game doesn’t tell us everything.

But sometimes one game tells us that everything we thought we knew might have been wrong.

After Week 1, the Chargers have more to prove than almost anyone.

And now the pressure is on them to show NFL fans which version was actually real.