House Chargers

The Wound

There is a word for what happens to this house and the realm uses it as a verb. To Charger a game is to lose it in a way that could not have been scripted — a blown lead, a botched kick, a decision no one can explain afterward.

It is not one wound. It is a genre. This house has been quietly talented for twenty years and has one conference title, from 1994, in a city it no longer plays in.

Last year: eleven wins, and a 16–3 defeat in the first round of the postseason. Three points. Right on schedule.

The Lord

Justin Herbert. Enormous arm, no visible pulse, statistically excellent for six years, and still waiting for a January that goes correctly. The realm has spent his entire career debating whether the problem is him. It is probably not him.

The Knights

• Derwin James — on the Watch, extended at seventy-five and a half million, the highest-paid safety in the sport.
• Khalil Mack — still here, still eighteen million, still difficult.

Ancient Grudges

• House Chiefs. A decade of finishing second in the division to the same house.
• House Raiders. Old, Californian, and increasingly geographically confusing.

What Changed This Spring

Almost nothing left. James extended, Teair Tart extended, Mack retained. This house looked at eleven wins and a three-point playoff loss and concluded the roster was fine. It might even be right. That has never been the problem here.

Prophecy

Eleven wins and something unspeakable in January.