Something seemed different watching Harbaugh coach the Chargers to their first win of the season.

This was more than just another Chargers season opener. A lot more!

The rugged way in which the team earned its 22-10 victory Sunday over the Raiders under new head coach Jim Harbaugh was affirmation that it’s a damn shame that, by the time the Spanoses hired a leader as sharp as Harbaugh, the franchise was in Los Angeles.

San Diegans deserved a Chargers coach as capable as Harbaugh.

It’s sickening that now that the Chargers have a leader who can take them far, they’re based nowhere near Mission Valley or the East Village.

The Harbaugh Era that debuted in the fake-grass Kroenke Dome in Inglewood displayed the same Harbaugh M.O. that took the 49ers to a Super Bowl and Michigan to its first undisputed national championship in 75 years.

The dumb stuff the Chargers have done year after year — fielding soft and disorganized teams that can’t finish, squandering the franchise’s unsurpassed great luck at quarterback — well, for the most part, that wasn’t visible.

Harbaugh’s Bolts maintained a physical style across four quarters.

They never turned the ball over.They finished!

What more do you need?

Nothing, and that’s the beauty of Harbaugh.

He understands what he wants his team to be at every position.

He weeds outs or ignores intrusions on his vision. He’s wise at managing both a game and a season.

It’s why he wins wherever he goes — starting with the University of San Diego, followed by Stanford, the 49ers and Michigan.

The player who attracted Harbaugh to the Chargers’ job, quarterback Justin Herbert discovered Sunday he lucked out when Dean and John Spanos finally got over themselves and hired Harbaugh last winter.

Herbert had it easy compared to most of his games.

Harbaugh, a former longtime NFL quarterback, created a cocoon for the 6-foot-6, 240-pounder, who sat out a few weeks of the preseason because of foot inflammation.

The coach and his former 49ers coordinator Greg Roman protected Herbert via three tools: the offensive players they and first-year general manager Joe Hortiz have imported in the past nine months; formations that featured 308-pound defensive tackle Scott Matlock at fullback and multiple tight ends who actually can block; and play calls.

The Raiders sacked Herbert only once.

Helping the QB further, Harbaugh’s defense battered a bad Raiders offense.

Whacked in the ribs by the Chargers’ stubborn ground game that it defeated often in the first half, a rugged Raiders defense dropped its hands in the second half and saw J.K. Dobbins pop two long runs and a 12-yard touchdown run.

A sign that Harbaugh and his assistants earned their game paychecks, problems got solved before they could mushroom into game-killers.

A rash of false starts in the first half — due to noisy Raiders fans and perhaps Raiders gamesmanship — didn’t extend into the second half.

Roman, whose expertise lies in the ground game, found ways to create numerical blocking advantages at the point of attack in the second half.

Harbaugh had it so good Sunday, the Michigan Man’s two best players were Ohio State alums.

Dobbins showed explosiveness the Chargers have lacked at running back.

The 25-year-old running back, who appears to have regained near-peak form after lengthy injury detours, burst through holes and evaded safeties in the open field.

Another former Buckeyes star, Joey Bosa, led the team in tackles and forced a running back into a critical fumble downfield.

Hortiz had a big day, too.

A former Ravens scout hired by Harbaugh, he signed Dobbins, an ex-Ravens draftee and star, to a low-cost free-agent contract.

Hortiz’s first draft class showed well, too, beginning with Joe Alt, selected fifth overall. The right tackle held up against Raiders All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who had one sack, and facilitated Dobbins’s second-half breakout.

Ladd McConkey, the receiver Hortiz chose in the second round, scored the clinching touchdown by evading two Raider defenders after catching a short pass from Herbert.

Sunday’s game started a 17-game journey that now will send the Chargers on the road against the the Panthers and Steelers.

But it began something much bigger.

San Diegans who have continued to invest emotion and time into cheering for the Chargers no longer are kidding themselves. This is an actual NFL franchise now, not one that’s faking it.

It would be bold to say Harbaugh is the best coach to oversee the Chargers given that Don Coryell and Sid Gillman are Hall of Famers, Bobby Ross led a Spanos-owned team to the Super Bowl and Schottenheimer stands eighth in NFL annals in victories.

But Harbaugh, 60, indeed is that good. His NFL experience at QB is one of many differentiating qualities.

He’s one of the few coaches who might be able to conquer Chargering and hand a Super Bowl trophy to the Spanoses.