It turns out that head coach Zac Taylor isn’t the only Bengals to have hung up an autographed photo of Jim Harbaugh at some point in the past.

“I probably have it lying around the house somewhere,” Duke Tobin mused this week as the director of player personnel reflected on the game. “Maybe in a box.”

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

“He was the first call I made when I decided to get into coaching,” Kovacs says this week as he prepares for the run he knows is coming. “He has always been a mentor to me.”

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

In his first season as coach of the Chargers’ star-crossed franchise, who has spent the 2020s blowing up big games they should have won, Harbaugh has made sure they won enough of those who came away to go 6-3 with his signature throwback style he used to lead his teams at Stanford and the 49ers, and most recently at Michigan.

If you want to know what kind of demolition derby the Bengals will face on Sunday, 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 that bloody score.

“His teams take on his personality,” Kovacs said. “Physical. Strength. Take care of the football. Play good defense. He’s always been that way.”

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

Whenever Bill Tobin wanted to draw an analogy or comparison and he was looking for the gold standard, he ended the debate with, “Like Harbaugh.”

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

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

If the Bengals seem to be attracted to Michigan’s most recent picks, such as first- and second-round picks Dax Hill, DJ Turner and Kris Jenkins Jr., in the last three drafts, it’s no coincidence.

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

If Bill Tobin was a mentor for Harbaugh, Harbaugh has been there for Kovacs. He still remembers the counsel Harbaugh gave him on his first day as an intern after playing 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 scheme or technique,” Kovacs said. “Put yourself in their shoes.”

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

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

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

The zone defense that the Chargers use more than 80% of the time has allowed a team-low 13.1 points per game. They’re trying to be the first team since the 1990 New York Giants to allow 20 points or fewer in each of the first ten games and they now face a zone-eating quarterback and receiver.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, a total of 81% of Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase’s 981 yards in the league have come against the zone. Quarterback Joe Burrow ranks fifth in yards per attempt and has the fourth-highest passer rating against two high safety looks that give the Chargers the second-most defense in the league.

Chase tips his hat to first-year offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher for moving him so much and putting him in the slot 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, seems to have left many of those routes to Chase.

“A good portion,” Burrow said. “He’s really made strides this year working in the slot in terms of option routes and zone coverage, he’s really taken ownership of that. That’s exciting to see because that 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 step to keep 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 someone is 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 will get 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 rank in the top 10 in passer rating. Burrow is in second place.

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

“I’m just looking to see what maybe we could have done differently and how we’ll approach it next time,” Chase says.

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

Always a solid tackler, he really stands out in a year when defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is looking for a more consistent tackle. 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, it’s the best among the Bengals defensive regulars.

Similar to last season, he has not given up a single touchdown, although his passer rating covers his 190 slot (13^e in the competition), 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 fresh.

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

“I will say that. It takes a lot out of my body,” said Hilton, who turned 30 in March. “It refreshes me a little.”

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

So when he sees the Bengals 29^e in third place (50% in the last three weeks) and 31^st there is something in the red zone.

“He knows I’m competitive. Especially in third place, the money is less,” Hilton said this week. “It hasn’t been my year for that. It was a difficult adjustment at first. But because I’m a leader, I just took it in stride and played my role.

“Do my best on first and second. Will I make that play, who knows? I feel like if I’m out there, it brings us (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 out of bounds,” Hilton said, “because there’s going to be a little bit more man coverage and, obviously, depending on who that 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 had a little understanding of how it would go. He knows I’m always ready when my number is called,” Hilton said.