The Chargers put together a 26-8 win over New Orleans on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

Here are five takeaways from Week 8:

1. Back in the win column

It may not have been the prettiest win, but all that mattered was that the Bolts bounced back.

The Chargers moved to 4-3 after Sunday's win against the Saints, doing so after a short week when the Bolts knew how much they needed to stay above .500.

"It's all about finding a way to win," Justin Herbert said.

Scott Matlock added: "Short week, bad taste in our mouth. We kinda felt like we let one go so we had to bounce back, get back on track, play the brand of ball we've been playing."

This Week 8 win over New Orleans likely won't be the sexiest victory Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh's team earns this season.

Sunday's game was, honestly, just plain odd at times. That was evident by a 26-8 final score that had only happened twice before in NFL history, the last time being in 1978.

"It was a weird win … just kind of strange game," Elijah Molden said.

But Harbaugh was proud of the fight from his team on a day where the Bolts moved back into an AFC playoff spot near the midpoint of the season.

"You can see the price that guys paid," Harbaugh said. "There's a price to be paid for these wins and they really spent themselves.

"Guy after guy, you know the price that they paid," Harbaugh added. "They gave it there all and left it out there on the field."

The Bolts partially won Sunday by winning the fourth quarter in which they earned a 10-0 advantage over the Saints in the final stanza.

That included a goal-line stand on the final play of the game.

"It does mean something," Derwin James, Jr. said of the full 60-minute effort. "It's not meaningless, it's points against our defense and we don't want to give up no points.

"We want to keep the team the least amount of points every week. It's our goal, come out and dominate," James added. "We don't want to give up anything, I don't care if it's the last two minutes, I don't care if we have the lead. We want to finish the game. We're trying to finish in the fourth quarter."

The Chargers are back on the road in Week 9 for a game in Cleveland against the 2-6 Browns.

"Now we go search for our next win," Harbaugh said.

2. Herbert ignites Bolts offense

Through three drives Sunday, the Chargers ran 12 plays for 16 yards and punted three times.

But on the first play of the Bolts fourth drive, Justin Herbert ignited the unit with his legs.

Herbert broke the pocket and took off down the right sideline for a 38-yard gain, the longest run play of his career.

"Loved the run, I thought that really got us going," Harbaugh said. "Really sparked us. It showed what he can do. He can run and he can run fast."

Herbert, who had been battling a high right ankle sprain earlier in the season, looked as healthy as he has in weeks as he showed off his wheels.

"It's always one play like that that can change the direction of the game," Herbert said. "We didn't do much before that but I thought the guys did a great job of sticking with it and staying patient."

He later added: "The way the play unraveled, I turned the corner and tried to get up [to speed] as quickly as I could. The ankle is feeling better so I feel like I got up somewhat to a good speed. Still got to work on that."

Herbert's run sparked the Bolts to their first points of the game on a 46-yard field goal from Cameron Dicker to give the Chargers a 3-2 lead.

The Bolts wouldn't trail after that.

Herbert threw for 279 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions Sunday with a passer rating of 111.3.

But on a day where he put together a second consecutive solid game through the air, it was Herbert's legs that jumpstarted the Bolts offense.

"If it wakes up the team, I'll do anything," Herbert said.

3. Bozeman protects his QB

The other thing that ignited the Chargers offense on Sunday?

The leadership and tenacity from Bolts center Bradley Bozeman.

With the Chargers still up 3-2 midway through the second quarter, Herbert threw a pass as Saints defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd was at his feet.

Shepherd grabbed Herbert's knee/ankle — the one that had been injured — and twisted it as Herbert fell to the ground in pain.

"One of the dirtiest plays I've seen," Bozeman said. "The ball was gone three seconds and he's twisting his ankle.

"Justin fights his ass off out there and he's battled through injuries and continues to fight," Bozeman added. "To see a guy do that to our guy, it pisses you off."

Bozeman promptly dove on top of Shepherd and, uh, gave him a stern talking to as Herbert tried to get his center off the pile.

"I got him off of him and made sure he wasn't able to do any more further damage," Bozeman said.

Both Shepherd and Bozeman were called for personal fouls that offset, not that the Chargers were mad at their center, who received a game ball and a loud ovation in the postgame locker room.

"I appreciated what he did," Herbert said. "I tried to pull him off so we wouldn't have any penalties called, but to have a guy like that defending you, there's no better feeling."

Harbaugh added: "Everybody knows Justin has got a bad ankle. I wasn't out there but I saw what I saw ... I don't encourage that at all but I don't blame him either."

Zion Johnson said: "That's awesome. Gotta protect the quarterback."

The Chargers responded to the play with emotion as Herbert hit Ladd McConkey for 15 yards and a first down.

The Bolts eventually completed a 15-play, 90-yard scoring drive that took off more than eight minutes off the clock.

4. Defense stymies Saints on 3rd downs

Don't be fooled by the 350-plus yards of offense the Bolts gave up to the Saints on Sunday.

Instead, the league's No. 1 scoring defense allowed just six points in Week 8. (Yes, New Orleans scored eight points but it tallied a safety on special teams early in the game).

"Defense gave up some yards but made the plays when we needed to," Harbaugh said. "Really only gave up six points on defense today, which is almost impossible to do in the NFL."

The Saints longest drive Sunday was their final one at 63 yards. On the 12 drives before that, New Orleans punted nine times, had two field goals and a missed kick.

The Chargers swarmed the Saints for five total sacks and limited New Orleans to just a pair of third-down conversions on 16 attempts.

"We kind of ran an array of coverages," Molden said. "We didn't really run the same thing every time so maybe that got to the young quarterback."

Matlock, who notched his first NFL sack, added: "Those are crucial plays that extend drives for them or end drives for us. Those are always crucial. We like to put an emphasis on those, strive really hard to execute those well and that showed today."

Still, even though the Bolts gave up 10 or fewer points for the third time this season, they were left wanting a little more in the postgame locker room.

"We played really good defense once they crossed the 50 … but we did some stuff that didn't feel clean, you know? I'm sure we'll get in the meeting room and get on the same page about things," Molden said.

Khalil Mack added: "Only giving up eight points, got to build on that and keep stacking days."

5. Scott flips the field

Chargers punter JK Scott also received a game ball in the postgame locker room.

Scott had six total punts Sunday as he averaged a whopping 57.1 yards per attempt, with three punts pinning the Saints inside their own 20-yard line.

"Want to point out JK Scott. He had a tremendous game," Harbaugh said. "Not just a great game, a tremendous game by him flipping the field with some huge punts."

Scott's first punt came from his own 23 as he uncorked a 59-yarder than ended with just a 3-yard return. He later hit a 47-yard punt that was fair caught at the 16.

A 63-yard punt in the second quarter led to just a 9-yard return and a 54-yard punt in the third quarter was fair caught at the 5. Another 54-yarder in the third quarter was smothered for no gain on the return.

"I thought I was just being patient. Just relaxed, trusting the swing," Scott said. "Their guys, they're a really good unit, the Saints were. They've blocked a lot of punts so everybody on the punt team did a really good job with protection.

"We had a good game plan and Josh [Harris] put the ball back for me really good," Scott added. "We just felt like we got into a good groove."

Perhaps the only blemish for the punt team came on the second punt of the game when Harris and Scott were off on a snap that rolled into the end zone.

But Chargers running back Hassan Haskins made a heads up play to swat the ball out of the end zone for a safety instead of allowing the Saints to fall on the ball for a touchdown.

"The guy who made the incredible play was Hassan Haskins … that's a heroic play in the game," Harbaugh said. "Two [points] instead of seven, that's a big difference."