Arizona went into SoFi Stadium as 8.5-point road underdogs and beat the Chargers 26-14. The defense delivered that win. It just wasn't the pass rush that did it.

Table of Contents

• The number that turned the game
• Four years of history as the baseline
• Hampton, carry by carry
• Every rusher finished in the red
• What the tackle sheet says about the pass rush
• What's next, and what this is and isn't

The number that turned the game

On 21 rushing attempts, the Chargers gained 81 yards against Arizona's defense in Week 1 — 3.86 yards per carry, at -0.325 EPA per rush. On a 21-carry sample, in isolation, that number is noise. It only means something measured against what this defense has actually allowed on the ground in recent years.

Four years of history as the baseline

This history isn't the story — it's the yardstick. From 2022 through 2025, Arizona let opposing runners average at least 4.7 yards a carry every single season, with EPA per rush allowed hovering right around break-even. That's the profile of a defense that simply didn't stop the run. In the 2026 opener, the Chargers ran for almost a yard less per carry than that four-year floor, and every one of those 21 rushes cost them, on average, about a third of an expected point.

Hampton, carry by carry (Chargers)

Rookie first-rounder Omarion Hampton carried the ball 12 times for 43 yards in the opener, averaging -0.385 EPA per carry. Play by play:

• 1st-and-10: 2 yards (-0.38 EPA)
• 1st-and-10: 0 yards (-0.51)
• 3rd-and-3: 8 yards, touchdown (+2.16)
• 1st-and-10: 14 yards (+0.74) — his longest gain
• 2nd-and-10: run for -1 yards, fumble forced by Andrew Wingard, recovered by Will Johnson at the ARI 34 (-5.20)
• 1st-and-10: 2 yards (-0.48)
• 2nd-and-2: 6 yards (+0.03)
• 1st-and-10: 6 yards (+0.24)
• 1st-and-10: 2 yards (-0.47)
• 2nd-and-4: 6 yards (+0.41)
• 2nd-and-15: -1 yards (-1.02)
• 2nd-and-1: 2 yards (-0.15)

Strip out the touchdown and the other 11 carries netted 35 yards on mostly negative plays, capped by the fumble. It wasn't a shutdown performance on every snap — Hampton still broke a 14-yard run — but the overall shape in his NFL debut against this defense was a back who couldn't find room and, on one carry, gave the ball away.

Every rusher finished in the red

Hampton wasn't alone. Justin Herbert scrambled five times for 29 yards at -0.21 EPA per carry, and Kimani Mitchell added four carries for 9 yards at -0.29 EPA per carry. Those were the only three rushers the Chargers used in the opener, and all three finished the game with negative EPA per carry — there was no corner of the Chargers' ground game that worked in Week 1.

What the tackle sheet says about the pass rush

Sweat's name shows up once in the run-play log from the opener: a shared tackle, alongside Levi Collier, on Hampton's third-quarter carry that lost a yard on 2nd-and-15. That's a stop against the run, not a pass-rush win, and it's the only credited appearance for him among Hampton's 12 carries. Elsewhere on the ground, Jack Gibbens was in on the tackle for Hampton's 14-yard gain, and Budda Baker, a safety, made the stop on a 6-yard carry. In the run-fit column, a linebacker and a safety showed up as much as anyone up front.

None of that tells us what Sweat or Arizona's edge rushers did against the pass in Week 1 — that's a different box score, and a fair one to look at separately before drawing conclusions about the pass-rush investment. What the run-play log does show clearly is that on early downs, it was Wingard, Gibbens, and Baker showing up around the line of scrimmage as much as anyone up front.

What's next, and what this is and isn't

Twenty-one carries is not a season-defining sample, and nothing here proves Arizona has fixed a run defense that allowed 4.7-plus yards a carry for four straight years. It's entirely possible Week 1 was a product of game script or plain variance. Whether that holds up as the 2026 season goes on is a separate question, and one more games will have to answer.