Los Angeles Chargers: Gut Check Moment For Both The Team And Justin Herbert

Justin Herber sustained a rib injury in his week 2 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs and will be listed as day-to-day. Just as bad, the Los Angeles Chargers walked away with a loss. Now that there’s 20 day stretch between games, Herbert will get his rest. A day-to-day designation suggests he wouldn’t miss much time, but he and the Chargers have a stern wakeup call after their week 2 loss

Statistically, Justin Herbert had a great game. Typically going 33/48 for 334 yards with 3TDs and 1 INT has people singing your praise. However, when it comes to playing the Chiefs, a team’s passing stats are inflated. Where Herbert’s mistakes were was the few passes he’d like to have back. Some were rushed, some were off the mark, and some were just bad decisions. There were plays he could’ve made to keep the Chargers in firm control. When you face a team like the Chiefs, you have to dig deep and find the little bit extra. You can’t let them back in the game.

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But to let Herbert off the hook, he wasn’t the only one who missed golden opportunities. Watching the Thursday Night Football matchup, the Los Angeles Chargers had many plays on defense that could’ve easily turned into interceptions. At least 3 times were defenders in position to pick the ball off and couldn’t walk away with a turnover. It’s not a big deal as they still made defensive stops. However, loss of possession is better than a loss of downs when you’re playing an elite quarterback in Patrick Mahomes who’s being coached by a future Hall of Fame coach in Andy Reid. If the defense takes the ball out of their hands, maybe that 3-point loss turns into a 3-point victory.

The Chargers will be okay. They’re a strong team with a lot of talent. They went into KC and made them look very beatable. With that being said, in today’s NFL, you’ve got to make those plays, especially against division rivals. The Los Angeles Chargers had an opportunity to send a message to the Chiefs that they’re ready to challenge them for the division and they let the opportunity slip through their hands. The loss in week 2 is a gut-check moment for both Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers to crank it up to 11 and in their next matchup be in playoff mode.