LOS ANGELES -- So, "Fight For L.A."?

"Maybe the fight is between the marketing departments," Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said. "I don't know.”

Lynn's Chargers -- the marketing wing, at least -- have made "Fight For L.A." their rallying cry as they ventured north from San Diego this calendar year, using the slogan as a continual hashtag on Twitter and in banners throughout the city. That fight then manifested itself on the field earlier this summer, when the Chargers and their new crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, took part in a joint practice that included three separate brawls.

Now the teams meet again, in an actual preseason game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night, with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

In the days leading up to the first and only game between the two in 2017, both teams scoffed at the thought that animosity could carry over and generally deflected the idea of a budding rivalry, even though they now share a market. Rams coach Sean McVay simply sees this game as "a great opportunity for two teams in a great market to try to put a sound product out there," adding: "I think it would be a little bit different if we were both in the NFC."

"I mean, shoot, it's always heated any time you're in between the lines of an NFL football game," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. "But I know there's no animosity held from that day from our guys. I would like to think it's the same with those guys."

That day, Aug. 9, marked the second time in five days the Rams and Chargers practiced together. The fights all took place on one of the two fields at the Rams' training-camp facility, where the Rams defense went up against the Chargers offense. Some of the Rams players said it was Rivers' trash-talking that ignited it all, which Lynn wasn't surprised to hear.

"He does talk a lot of trash," Lynn said of Rivers. "I will say that."

Rams cornerback E.J. Gaines was involved in two of the fights, first with wide receiver Jamaal Jones and then with defensive end Chris McCain -- during a special-teams drill, no less. But Gaines has since been traded to the Bills, as part of the surprising deal that brought Sammy Watkins to the Rams.

The first fight was the most intense. It was between Trumaine Johnson, the Rams' franchise corner, and Dontrelle Inman, one of the Chargers' receivers. Johnson was upset with the way Inman repeatedly jammed his hands at his facemask while running routes. Finally, Johnson ripped off his helmet and took a swing. His teammate Nickell Robey-Coleman then pushed Inman to the ground, which prompted Chargers receiver Keenan Allen to tackle Robey-Coleman. Things got wild thereafter.

Now?

“We gon' be all right," Johnson said. "We're just going out there, just working on ourselves, man, working on our technique and trying to get better every day. Just another game for us."

Allen entertained the possibility of it being a little bit more than that. "There's probably going to be a lot of intensity," he said. "But we're just going to go out and play football, do what we do and keep it between the lines. We'll probably have a little more tenacity and enthusiasm.”

The Rams' starters -- the healthy ones, at least -- are expected to play through the first quarter and into the early part of the second, as they did last Saturday in Oakland. The Chargers' starters are expected to play through the first half in a game that should be of particular importance to Rivers, who has had only one series -- a 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive -- all preseason. Lynn hopes his guys play with "fire and intensity," but he believes they will "have the discipline not to have the fights."

"And for the record," Lynn said, "we didn't start the fights anyway."

If the Rams started the physical fights, the Chargers started the marketing ones.

The two teams now share a city, on their own to carve out fan bases until they move into a $2.6 billion stadium in 2020. The Rams were 4-12 in their return to Los Angeles last season, with a boring offense and a lame-duck head coach. Their tumultuous return to the nation's second-largest media market only made the move more difficult for the Chargers, who went a combined 9-23 in their final two seasons in San Diego.

Both teams understand that consistent winning will be the only real way to win over fans in this city.

They see Saturday as an important step toward that, and perhaps little else.

"The biggest thing that we want to do is be competitive," Rams veteran left guard Rodger Saffold said. "They've been able to compete against us twice. They've made good plays, we've made good plays. So it's finally a chance to just see how it works in full game play. I think everybody is excited, and everybody knows what each other does. This is a great opportunity to get better on the way to the season."

ESPN Chargers reporter Eric D. Williams contributed to this report.