The Chargers repeated the obvious after their 27-10 loss Sunday to the Washington Commanders. “No excuses,” they said. “We’ve got to clean it up,” they said. “It’s fixable,” they said after a second consecutive lackluster performance resulted in a second dismal loss in a row.
Here’s what we learned, what we heard and what comes next as questions about the Chargers’ status as a quality football team multiplied after turnovers, mistakes, penalties, lack of attention to details and overall shabby play plagued them for a second straight week:
REASONS OR EXCUSES?
The Chargers were without their top two tackles because of injuries. Rashawn Slater is out for the season because of a knee injury and Joe Alt sprained his right ankle in their Week 4 loss to the New York Giants, and a patchwork offensive line hasn’t protected Justin Herbert very well.
OK, that’s one reason why Herbert has thrown for only 203 yards in the loss to the Giants and 166 yards against the Commanders, and why he was sacked twice by New York and four times by Washington. It’s also why his net yards per attempt tumbled to 4.3 yards the past two games.
Herbert averaged more than 8 yards per attempt in each of his first two games.
“It’s always tough,” Herbert said of playing behind a makeshift line with Slater and Alt sidelined and others hurting, too. “You’d love to have the same group of guys up there that go out and communicate and play as one, but I think they’ve done such a great job of shuffling around.”
Their many injuries explained some of the problems. But they didn’t look like an NFL team playing its fifth game of the season. They looked more like a Pop Warner team playing its first together. How much do Coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff bear responsibility for their disorganization?
“Yeah, there’s the things you can do as a coach,” Harbaugh said, addressing the notion of culpability. “The first thing that jumps to my mind is to just work at it, practice it to where it’s honed in, it’s dialed in, and you don’t lighten up, you tighten up. We have to tighten up the operation in every way.”
The Chargers were penalized 10 times for 85 yards Sunday, one week after they were penalized 14 times for 107 yards in a loss to the Giants. Big gains were wiped out by penalties, including on consecutive third-quarter plays for holding and illegal formation penalties by fill-in right tackle Trey Pipkins III.
Wide receiver Quentin Johnston fumbled after a 19-yard gain deep into Washington territory in the second quarter, a tipping point in the game, as it turned out. Instead of extending their 10-0 lead, the Chargers lost their momentum as the Commanders rallied to tie the score by halftime.
Herbert threw an interception into the end zone, a tipped pass that blunted any fourth-quarter momentum the Chargers could have generated. They could have narrowed the Commanders’ lead to 20-17 with a touchdown and with plenty of time left to play, but came up empty.
“It’s just bad luck,” Herbert said.
CHAOS, CHAOS, CHAOS
The Chargers seemed confused as to who should be on the field and who should be on the sideline in critical situations. It’s never a good look, but it happens from time to time, even to the best of teams. It seemed to happen far too often, both on offense and on defense, for the Chargers.
One play summed up the chaotic nature of the Chargers’ substitutions more than all the others. It was a fourth-and-2 play from the Commanders’ 39-yard line late in the third quarter. There were only 10 players in the Chargers’ huddle as the play clock ticked down, one below the legal limit.
Finally, after some frantic gesturing, tight end Tyler Conklin raced onto the field. Seconds later, Herbert fired a high heater that would have made Shohei Ohtani proud through Conklin’s hands for an incomplete pass and a turnover on downs, another chance to get back into the game wasted.
So, where the heck was Conklin?
“We called for the personnel group, and I don’t know if he didn’t hear it,” Harbaugh said, sounding slightly exasperated when asked for an explanation for why such a critical play at such a critical moment went haywire. “I don’t know why he didn’t go out there (right away).”
WHAT COMES NEXT
The reeling Chargers (3-2) visit the reeling Miami Dolphins (1-4). Miami is fresh from a come-from-ahead 27-24 loss Sunday to the Carolina Panthers. Both teams have plenty of work to do if they hope to get back to playing crisp and clean football. It should be entertaining, to say the least.