Much has been made this year of how much the Chargers defense has struggled – leaving Justin Herbert and the offense to have to try to bail the team out, and not always succeeding. The lone exception to this was the Jets game last week, but that’s easy to dismiss as an anomaly. In Week 10, the difference between the production of the offense and defense for the Chargers were polar opposites more than ever during the Brandon Staley regime. Justin Herbert and the offense did everything they could – particularly in the second half – but it wasn’t enough.
Chargers Defense Fails Team Again in Week 10 Loss
Herbert-to-Allen Kept Team In the Game
The offense actually got off to a bit of a rough start early on, as Austin Ekeler struggled to get any running room and the pass attack suffered as a result. The team ended up in a 17-3 hole early on. But then Herbert got going, and he and Keenan Allen essentially put the Chargers on their back. Herbert passed for 323 yards, four touchdowns (three in the second half), and one interception (part of the early-game rut). Meanwhile, Keenan Allen caught 11 receptions for 175 yards and two touchdowns – and that was despite being in and out of the game during the second half due to injury.
Even when Allen went down for a bit, that didn’t stop Herbert – and being without all three of your top wideouts easily could have been a back-breaker. Instead, Herbert found Quentin Johnston for his first career touchdown, and Jalen Guyton for his first touchdown since December 2021. Ekeler started finding more room as the game went on as well, and finished with 67 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.
Defensive Ineptitude
On the other side of the ball, it was a completely different story. The Chargers surrendered 533 yards, including 200 rushing. The worst one was a 75-yard touchdown run by David Montgomery with multiple missed tackles. Jared Goff went 23-for-33 with 333 yards and two touchdowns. The Chargers did not get a single sack or turnover, and only one tackle for a loss. Nearly the only positive on the day for the defense was a red zone stop on fourth down – but they allowed multiple other fourth-down conversions, so it wasn’t something they were able to replicate.
Herbert and Allen tied the score at 38 with three and a half minutes to go, and the offense never saw the ball again. The defense allowed the offense to waltz right into field goal range, allowed one more fourth-down conversion, and it ended on a last-second field goal. This game can’t be pinned on a failed final Herbert drive – this is all on the defense.
This is arguably a new low for the Chargers defense. They were shredded with both the run and the pass – as opposed to just the latter. There are virtually no positives to take from their performance. Despite one of Herbert’s best games of the year, they could not stop anything when it mattered.
A Team of Opposites
This team has almost never been able to play complementary football this year. The two wins before this game may have made it look like the defense was turning a corner, but that was also against the likes of Zach Wilson and Tyson Bagent. The Chargers have yet to beat a good team – unless you count the Vikings, but they were 0-3 at the time. Herbert is doing the best he can out there – despite missing his center and two of his top three receivers – but the defense has only given him much help against subpar teams and has looked downright inept at times against good teams like the Lions or Chiefs.
It has been said often, but after a game like this, it bears mentioning yet again that Brandon Staley is supposed to be a defensive-minded head coach. And yet, all three years, despite having multiple Pro Bowlers, the defense has ranked in the bottom half of the league. And although Joe Lombardi held the offense back in 2022, the number of times in these three years that the team has lost because of Herbert and the offense could be counted on one hand. The number of times they lost because of the defense might need more than two hands.
Whether the two wins against easier opponents gave the defense a false sense of security or not, this is the kind of game that should lead to some serious soul-searching for both the defensive players and the coaching staff. This team is unlikely to make the playoffs – especially in a very crowded AFC – unless the defense starts doing their part more, and not just against subpar teams.
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