The Chargers did half the job right in Jim Harbaugh’s debut as coach, relying on their defense to hold the Las Vegas Raiders at bay for one half while their offense warmed up for a much better second half on Sunday. Here’s what we learned, what we heard and what’s next:

Defensive dominance

There’s no question that the Chargers’ defense was way ahead of their offense in training camp and in three exhibition games in which they used mostly reserve players, and that seemed to be the case again in Sunday’s 22-10 win in the season opener at SoFi Stadium.

In baseball parlance, pitchers were ahead of batters early in the season. In football parlance, it’s a long season, but not that long. In other words, the offense doesn’t have much time to catch up and show the same kind of success and efficiency as the defense.

“It was a great performance, an inspired performance,” coach Jim Harbaugh said of the Chargers’ defense, which limited the Raiders to 71 yards on 22 carries, an average of 3.2 yards per attempt. “I thought it was really outstanding. The whole team was inspired by the defense.”

The Raiders were 5 of 14 (35.7%) in third down efficiency and 0 of 1 in fourth down efficiency. They gained 296 total yards, a modest average of 5 yards per play. They fumbled twice and Gardner Minshew II threw one interception, a deflected pass that Poona Ford picked off late in the game.

Las Vegas’ only touchdown came on a 31-yard pass from Minshew to Alexander Mattison in the final minute of the first quarter, giving the Raiders a 7-3 lead.

Upswing in the second half

If you throw the first-half video in the trash, you’ll see that the Chargers were actually pretty efficient offensively. They had nine of their 11 first downs in the second half, three extended scoring drives of 60 yards or more, and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

In addition, the Chargers neither lost a fumble nor threw an interception.

In total, they gained 316 yards, including 176 yards on the ground. JK Dobbins ran for 135 yards and a touchdown on just 10 attempts. He scored the game-winning touchdown with a 12-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving the Chargers a 16-7 lead with 14:55 left.

Did the Chargers simply wear down the Raiders on a day when it was 90 degrees at the opening kickoff? Did the Chargers’ patience pay off during a game in which they made only a few minor changes to their offense in the second half, including going without a huddle at times?

Both could be true.

“It was warm, it was a warm day,” Chargers center Bradley Bozeman said. “You definitely notice when you wear a team down. I think we definitely started to wear them down. In that heat, you can wear down a defense, especially if you run the ball consistently.”

“I think we actually wore them down.”

Of the Chargers’ adjustments in the second half, quarterback Justin Herbert said, “Just being patient. You know, just knowing we have our stuff, we have the right guys out there. We had to settle in. There were a few too many penalties in the first half, but I thought once they settled in and got the ball moving, it was a lot better. We just have to go out there, play confident, play fast, that’s what we have to do.”

The Chargers offense was penalized five times in the first half, including four for false starts. After cleaning that up in the second half, Herbert was able to lead the Chargers to a field goal and two touchdowns and earn a physical, clear victory over an AFC West rival.

“There’s no excuse for the penalties we got early on,” Harbaugh said. “We’re going to work on that. I think Week 1 to Week 2 is the biggest week you can make the most progress for the entire season. So we’re really focused, with everything we have, on getting better this week.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Chargers (1-0) travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sunday to face the Carolina Panthers (0-1). The Panthers are coming off a real rout in their season opener, a 47-10 loss to the Saints in New Orleans, a game in which Brice Young’s first pass of the season was intercepted.