Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh left his mark on the Bengals; Burrow, Chase Look to Solve the LA Twilight Zone; Mike Hilton adjusts

Turns out head coach Zac Taylor isn’t the only Bengal with an autographed picture of Jim Harbaugh hanging somewhere in the past.

“I probably got it somewhere in the house,” mused Duke Tobin this week as the director of player personnel contemplated the game. “Maybe in a box.”

Jordan Kovacs, the first-year safeties coach who played in the NFL box before calling Harbaugh, is in a few team photos with him, both wearing Michigan blue. In the first, Kovacs is one of Harbaugh’s interns. In the second, he is one of his graduate assistants.

“He was the first call I made when I decided to become a coach,” Kovacs says this week as he prepares for the running game he knows is coming. “He’s always been a mentor to me.”

In a monstrous battle for their AFC playoff hopes, the 4-6 Bengals see another installment of Harbaugh’s career as a football influencer Sunday night (8:20-Cincinnati’s Channel 5) in Los Angeles.

During his first season coaching the Chargers’ star-studded franchise that has spent the 2020s blowing games it should have won, Harbaugh has won enough of those that got away to be 6-3 with his signature throwback style that he used to shape his teams at Stanford and the 49ers, and most recently at Michigan.

If you want to know what kind of demolition derby the Bengals face on Sunday, just go back to the third game of Harbaugh’s NFL coaching career with the 49ers. The 2011 visit to Paycor Stadium was not only his first road game, but also the first home game for the Bengals’ rookie wide receiver-quarterback tandem of AJ Green and Andy Dalton.

San Francisco’s 13-8 victory is believed to be the only NFL game decided by the bloody score.

“His team takes on his personality,” says Kovacs. “Physical. Toughness. Run the football. Play good defense. He’s always been that way.”

That’s what drew the late scouting guru Bill Tobin to Harbaugh as a player. Tobin, the architect of the legendary 1985 Bears before working with his son on the Bengals, drafted Harbaugh, a blue-collar Big Ten-winning quarterback at Michigan, in the first round in 1987, and a lifelong bond was formed.

When Bill Tobin sought to draw an analogy or a comparison, and he was looking for the gold standard, he would end the debate with “Like Harbaugh.”

Duke Tobin worked a few of the Bears camps early in Harbaugh’s career before he went to college, and that’s probably when the photo was taken.

“He was always just a regular guy,” Tobin says.

If the Bengals seem drawn to the latest crop of Michigan players, such as first- and second-rounders Dax Hill, DJ Turner and Kris Jenkins Jr., in the last three drafts, it’s not a coincidence.

“Great football family. Made of all the right stuff,” says Duke Tobin. “My dad valued toughness. Playing the game with physicality and smarts. Leaving it all out there for the team on the field. That’s the kind of thing that resonated with my dad.”

If Bill Tobin was a mentor for Harbaugh, Harbaugh has been there for Kovacs. He still remembers the advice Harbaugh gave him his first day on the job as an intern for him after he played three seasons in the NFL.

“You’re a former player. You’ve played a lot of football. You always draw on those experiences, whether you’re talking about plan or technique,” says Kovacs. “Put yourself in their place.”

Kovacs heard it, but he didn’t really know what Harbaugh meant until the next week when he ran an individual drill. There he was, putting himself in their shoes.

“Seeing it through their eyes,” says Kovacs. “Always try to draw on good and bad experiences. The basics, but also off the pitch. It’s always about putting yourself in their shoes. That was his message to me early on.”

Pretty cut and dried Sunday night for Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, son of longtime University of Cincinnati head coach Rick Minter and one of the hot young minds in the game at age 41.

The zone defense that the Chargers use more than 80% of the time has allowed a league-leading 13.1 points per possession. match. Trying to become the first team since the 1990 New York Giants to allow 20 points or fewer in each of their first ten games, they now face a zone-chewing quarterback and receiver.

A total of 81% of Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase’s league-leading 981 yards came against the zone, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Quarterback Joe Burrow is fifth in yards per game. attempts and has the fourth-highest passer rating against two-high safety looks, which the Chargers use the second most of any defense in the league.

Chase tips his hat to first-year offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher for moving him around so much and putting him in the field more often. It wasn’t a criticism of Brian Callahan, the old OC who is now the Titans head coach. Chase says it was more out of necessity when slot receiver Tyler Boyd followed Callahan to Tennessee.

Boyd, another zone killer, has proven to bequeath many of these routes to Chase.

“A good portion,” said Burrow. “He’s really taken steps to work the field this year with pick routes, zone coverage, he’s really taken ownership of it. It’s exciting to see because it just adds another element to his game.”

Chase says he took some things from Boyd, but not his work against zones.

“He did a lot of good things in zones. He had a great hammer stride to stop himself out of breaks,” Chase said. “I feel like (playing against zone is) more of a feeling thing. More of a feeling. Like you feel like somebody’s staring at you.”

Chase probably won’t be staring at Burrow Sunday. Chase says Burrow knows when he wants the ball. He doesn’t have to say anything.

“A look,” Chase says. “Only Joe knows.”

He gets the ball. The buzz in LA is whether this defense can put up the same numbers against high flyers as the Bengals.

Four of the Chargers’ wins have come against offenses ranked 24th or lower and four of the six lowest-ranked passing games. Of the nine quarterbacks they’ve faced, none are in the top 10 in passer rating. Burrow is number two.

Chase said he and Burrow have talked about the two-pointer in Baltimore on the last play that went incomplete to tight end Tanner Hudson on a play that was set up by Chase’s third touchdown of the night.

“Just looking to see what we could have done differently and how we’re going to handle it next time,” Chase says.

If you ask Bengals slot cornerback Mike Hilton, he’s having one of the best seasons of his eight-year career.

Always a solid tackler, really stands out in a year defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo looks for more consistent tackling. Of the 65 cornerbacks who have played at least 400 snaps, his missed tackle percentage of 7.5 is ninth-best in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. According to The Athletic, that’s the best among the Bengals’ defensive regulars.

Just like last season, he hasn’t given up any touchdowns, although his passer rating of 190 slot covers (13^th in the league), is 91.2, sixth-best among those with that many, compared to last year’s 81.9, the lowest among those with at least 356 slot covers.

And he says he feels healthy.

There is a double-edged sword. He doesn’t play as much on third down, a point of pride, but he also believes the fewer snaps have helped.

“I will say that. It takes a toll on my body,” said Hilton, who turned 30 in March. “It cheers me up a bit.”

It’s not like Hilton didn’t see the third-down role coming. Anarumo talked about it with him in training camp. But the undrafted 5-9, 184-pound Hilton didn’t become one of the league’s best inside linebackers without a flow of competitive juices.

So when he sees the Bengals’ 29^th on third down (50% the last three weeks) and 31^St in the red zone there is something inside.

“He knows I’m competitive. Especially on third down, the money down,” Hilton said this week. “It hasn’t been my year for that. At first it was a tough adjustment. But as a manager, I kind of just took it easy and played my part.

“Doing the best I can on first and second down. Will I make that play, who knows? I feel like if I’m out there it brings our (comfort) up. Things can still change. But I know my role and I do my best to play it.”

Hilton says Anarumo told him he’s making the moves for “matchup purposes.”

“Third-and-six or plus, I’m usually off the field,” Hilton said, “because it’s going to be a little more man coverage, and obviously, depending on who the slot receiver is, some matchups work better.”

But Hilton knows things can change in a league where even the initials say “Not For Long.”

“We kind of had an understanding of how it’s going to go. He knows I’m always ready when my number is called,” Hilton said.