As Chargers spiral, pressure mounts on Justin Herbert

Martin Rogers

FOX Sports Insider

When, a week ago, Justin Herbert started publicly shouldering some blame for what was going wrong with the Los Angeles Chargers, he was quickly shushed.

No one wanted to hear it. Not your fault, Justin. That was the common thread. Take those apologies and stash them in your pocket. We’re not interested in hearing them.

Now, as Herbert’s team sputters and wobbles deeper into a season that looks increasingly likely to end in gloom, he might be finding a few more takers.

“I can play a lot better,” Herbert said, after last Monday’s defeat to the Dallas Cowboys. “I have to make more plays as a quarterback.”

“We didn’t execute as well as we could have,” he said after Sunday’s defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs. “There are some plays we’d love to have back. Our coach put us in good position, and it’s on me and on our offense to score points.”

He’s an excellent young quarterback, Herbert, and if you have him as a lock to be a superstar in the National Football League for a decade or longer, you won’t find much in the way of dissenting thought.

But he’s not firing at his best right now and the Chargers aren’t getting it done, and the reality is growing that the blame can’t be entirely talked away by criticisms of head coach Brandon Staley. Or the upheaval of having a new offensive coordinator in Kellen Moore. Or just the fact that stuff always seems to go wrong for the Chargers.

The Chargers find themselves at 2-4 after a summer in which Herbert was rewarded with a $262.5 million extension, tying him to the franchise for the next five years. This is his fourth campaign, and by the standards of expected progression it is supposed to be the start of the next wave, when the Chargers move forward into the realms of a genuine contender.

Instead, it is a confounding tale of woe, pockmarked by so many missed opportunities.

Los Angeles could have won each and every game it has played this season. The slippage began in Week 1, when late chances went begging against the Miami Dolphins. It continued in Week 2 when the Tennessee Titans should have been put away before, and certainly during, overtime. Time and again Herbert has had the ball in his hands, like against the Cowboys in Week 6, and when presented with the opportunity to go out and make a critical, season-shifting difference, hasn’t found success.

Chargers fan message boards, normally nothing but glowing about their star thrower, are a little more on the fence now. The less-favorable statistics, mostly related to his record in close games, are appearing with greater frequency.

Under-pressure coach Staley is pinged with most of the ire whenever anything goes wrong with the Chargers and much of that is justified, but it must also be asked right now if Herbert is pulling the kind of weight that such a whopping contract demands.

The Chargers defense might have some shaky numbers, but it was mighty in reducing the Chiefs to just seven second-half points last weekend and getting the ball back time and again for Herbert and his pals to have another crack. The end result was dismal — Herbert was sacked five times and managed zero points after halftime.

FS1’s Colin Cowherd has heard the doubts about Herbert and believes some of them are premature.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Well, I don’t know about Justin Herbert,'” Cowherd said on “The Herd.” “All right, time out. He’s got a new coordinator. He’s on his third coordinator in four years. He’s on his second coach and this coach isn’t working either.

“He is big, strong, a 4.2 (GPA) biology major, accurate and mobile. He checks every box. For those questioning him, ask yourself a question: What away from Justin Herbert do they do well? Run game, special teams, defense? No. What they do well is they are great in the red zone offensively. They don’t turn the ball over. All the things they do well are tied to Justin Herbert.”

Why Justin Herbert is not to blame for Chargers’ issues

Cowherd has a point, but there is a difference in questioning Herbert’s ability and questioning whether he should carry any of the fault for what is happening now. Honestly speaking, because we are all just a little bit more optics-driven than we like to admit, he truly embodies the look of an NFL quarterback as much as anyone who currently plays the game.

When things are clicking, he inspires confidence. He looks composed. He can make any throw. He has strength and vision. He’s the guy of guy you’d want leading your team into the future.

And yet none of that is translating in the way Los Angeles fans would want it to.

Herbert comes across as slick and stylish and, yes, the start to his NFL career has been good enough to suggests an outstanding career is in the works.

But for all that optimism — and all that money — to mean something in the short term, he needs an impactful win where he is the primary difference-maker, and the clutch closer.

It doesn’t even have to be a good-looking win (Sunday’s game against 2-5 Chicago could be a start). Blame is a funny business in the NFL and it can shift quickly.

For Herbert to stay on the right side of it will involve finding a way, any way, via a wobbly, off-balance throw that somehow finds its target, a bounce off someone’s backside, an ill-advised QB run that works out anyway.

Anything, really, to flip the switch and win a darn game when things are in the balance.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.

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