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Kris Rhim, ESPN
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley approached the podium after Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, looking as dejected as he had all season. The loss bumped the Chargers, a team that had championship aspirations coming into this season, to 2-4 and third in their division.
Coming into Sunday, the Chargers’ three losses had come by three points or fewer, and their wins decided by seven points or fewer. But Sunday, they lost by 14 points in a game where the team looked like two different versions of itself in each half. As Staley stood on the podium, he took the blame for the loss, while admitting that his team required a significant shift.
“It’s frustrating,” Staley said. “I can’t tell you why the season started this way, but it just — it is — and it’s no one’s responsibility but mine. We’ve got a good football team, and we just gotta go — we need to reset, this football team, we need to reset.”
On Monday, it appeared that the reset was underway as Staley began his news conference without the scruffy black and gray beard he had been sporting this season. But Staley said shaving his beard wasn’t a part of the reset, despite the timing.
“We’ve got a good team,” Staley said. “Through six games, we haven’t gotten the results yet, but I think our reset just takes the pressure off and just gets us focusing on the things that just really allow us to perform the way we’re capable of.”
One of the keys to turning this season around rests on the shoulders of Justin Herbert.
The team made Herbert the highest-paid player in franchise history in the offseason after three seasons that cemented him as one of the league’s best quarterbacks. But for the past three games — all of which Herbert has played with a fractured left middle finger — Herbert has had one of the worst stretches of his career, a major reason the Chargers are two games below .500.
“Football is tough. Whether you’re winning or whether you’re losing, it’s a tough sport, and it requires tough people,” Herbert said after the loss to the Chiefs. “We have a tough locker room. It hasn’t gone our way the last couple of games, but no one is going to panic or quit or give up.”
Herbert has primarily downplayed his injury, though he admitted last week that he’s always in pain. He has said the most significant difference is gripping the football, and Sunday, he was handing the ball off only right-handed.
But his stats indicate that the injury is impacting Herbert much more than he is saying. Since Week 4, when Herbert fractured his finger in the third quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders, he has 653 passing yards, the fewest he’s had in any three-game span in his career. Against the Raiders, he had career lows in completions (13) and passing yards (167).
His four interceptions in the past three games are tied for the most in his career during any three-game span, and it’s just the second time in his career he has had a completion percentage below 60% over a three-game span. His completion percentage (57.1%) is fourth worst among quarterbacks in their past three starts, trailing Matthew Stafford (55.6%), C.J. Stroud (53.3%), and Joshua Dobbs (51.9%).
But the rushing offense is also among the worst in the league, making it easy for teams to commit to stopping the pass without much worry about the team’s running backs. Herbert has also been pressured on 42.2% of his dropbacks during this three-week span, the third-most in the league, and sacked eight times, five of which came against the Chiefs.
But the high sack number and pressure rate could be because of how long Herbert is holding on to the ball. According to Next Gen Stats, he has had an average time of 3.06 seconds to throw over the past three weeks, the second highest among quarterbacks with at least 100 drop backs.
“When they bring pressure, you have to be able to answer,” Herbert said after the Chiefs loss, “you have to find completions. You have to get the ball out quick. I took some sacks that I’d love to have back. I thought our guys battled. The offensive line did a good job holding up and giving me time to get the ball off.”
Herbert has also missed throws: Two to Keenan Allen in the Week 6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys that he was openly regretful about and another in the end zone in the loss to the Chiefs. On all those throws he had good protection, but just missed. He has still made signature plays, including a 51-yard pass to Joshua Palmer to put the Raiders game away one quarter after fracturing his finger.
“Well, I know that it is not impacting the run game at all,” Staley said of Herbert’s injury. “I know that Justin is ready to go. He has talked to you guys about how he’s feeling. He’s just like a lot of the other players that are dealing with knicks, but he has been able to perform.”
