The fascinating part about Jim Harbaugh taking over the Chargers was the collision it created between two powerful football forces.

On one side was Harbaugh’s hyper-competitiveness and expertise, standing out even among the obsessive folks who populate big-time football.

Wherever Harbaugh has been a head coach, his teams have won at a high rate. After making Stanford into football bullies, he took the NFL’s 49ers to a Super Bowl in his second season. The Michigan football machine he assembled went 15-0 to seize the school’s first undisputed national title in 75 years last January.

On the other side was a force tougher to quantify, but formidable enough to expand the NFL’s vocabulary.

Chargers teams have goofed up so many good opportunities over the decades that “Chargering” has become part of the NFL lexicon. Even the NFL’s media partners, in the persons of broadcasters such as Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico, have taken to using the term, if sheepishly. Last month, former NFL players Chris Long, Ryan Clark and Chad Johnson dropped “Chargering” on Bill Belichick during their weekly TV show. The former Patriots coach, who may be still grateful to Marlon McCree, didn’t require an explainer.

So where do things stand now, almost a year since Harbaugh and Chargering first met in their cosmic wrestling match?

Advantage: Harbaugh.

The coach has his first Chargers team headed toward the playoffs, a season after the franchise finished last in the AFC West.

The Chargers (8-6) lead the helpful Colts (6-8), Bengals (6-8) and Dolphins (6-8) in the race for the final wild card with three games to go. They hold the tiebreaker over the Bengals, thanks to outlasting them last month, although not before they had to quell the first serious flare-up of Chargering under Harbaugh. In the season’s final three games, the Chargers figure to be favored. Thursday night’s contest matches them against the Broncos (9-5) in the Kroenke Dome, followed by road dates against the Patriots (3-11) and Raiders (2-11 entering Monday night).

So for the Chargers to not win a wild card, every longtime observer of this franchise knows what would have to happen.

It would take some serious Chargering.

Harbaugh might not wear khakis for the rest of 2025, if it happens.

Harbaugh’s guys falling short would be like former coach Brandon Staley’s first Bolts team allowing the Raiders to convert on third-and-23 via a draw play in the “winner-take-all” wild-card clincher at Las Vegas. Augmented by sloppy defense, the clever 24-yard rush, by Jalen Richard, who was hand-timed at 4.60 seconds in the 40-yard dash at Southern Mississippi’s pro day, led to a Raiders TD in addition to recalling Ray “Hey Diddle Diddle” Rice’s infamous fourth-and-29 conversion against Norv Turner’s final Bolts team nine years earlier.

Staley’s Chargers went on to lose as a three-point road favorite.

Harbaugh’s guys not grasping the wild-card berth would be less dramatic than the flameout in Jacksonville two winters ago. Staley’s second club took a 27-0 lead into the mid-third quarter only to lose the coach’s only playoff game.

Prediction: Harbaugh’s team holds on, earning one of the three wild cards.

Admittedly, confirmation bias may be nudging me. Entering this season, I wrote Harbaugh’s first team would beat the 8.5-victory over-under line.

Harbaugh will frame the final stretch as a big opportunity. The Chargers can draw upon the physical style he’s effected. They can apply the attention to detail that has them sixth in fewest penalties.

On offense, they can lean on their ball-security improvements. They stand second in fewest giveaways, a trait best exemplified by Justin Herbert, who threw 433 consecutive passes without an interception before a Buccaneers cornerback, spurring Tampa Bay’s surge to victory, caught his second-and-9 floater in Sunday’s loss. Herbert’s streak was the fifth-longest in NFL history, exceeded by Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff and Tom Brady twice.

Harbaugh vs. Chargering. Chargering vs. Harbaugh.

Who will finish the job?