The Chargers Were Obliterated By The Texans And We Can Have The Conversation About Big Game Herbert

Let me set this up with some quick background. I thought this team would be 8-9. It's a rebuild year, they lost their good players and rebuilt them in the aggregate with garbage out of scrap pile. Harbaugh obviously exceeded those low expectations and 11 wins is insane for this roster to achieve. However, going into the playoffs, there were very obvious weakness in the roster. The entire IOL is as solid as a wet paper bag, there were a lot of injuries on the defense and above all, the receiver core was pathetic. Pretty much all of those chickens came to roost today. 

Herbert was under fire basically every single snap through the middle, the receivers dropped, by my count, 7 passes including that interception above. On top of that, Denzel Perryman went down which softened up the entire middle of the defense (which played very good, contrary to the final score). 

But here is what it comes down to. The Defense lived up to their side of the bargain and the offense did not. And a big reason why is that Justin Herbert had one of the worst games of his career. I have defended him to the point of calling him an MVP candidate this season because he has lead a team to 11 wins with a literal scrap pile but this was just a straight up bad performance. He missed McConkey twice early on touchdown plays, he threw him too high on what became an interception and he outright refused to use his legs and improvise. 

Again, the rest of the offense did him no favors tonight. Free pressures seemingly every other play and WRs dropping passes left and right. But the elite company of QBs, which I claim him to be a part of, manage to make something happen. I think a lot of it comes down to him being a very robotic player that doesn't like to go off script and that is something he will need to fix if he wants to win a game like this. Especially when the screenwriter is Greg Roman, who essentially had to flee Baltimore under cover of night to avoid being strung up by Ravens fans. 

So is Herbert a player that just can't win big games? I don't know. I justifiably put an asterisk on the Jaguars game because he scored off every turnover the defense gave him and the offense put up a whopping ZERO rushing yards during an entire second half of ball-control football. This game he still didn't get any rushing help but he also didn't score off those turnovers. Part of that can be attributed to the pressure and lack of receivers but he also needs to own part of that. 

So now, where to the Chargers stand? We get to endure an entire offseason of Herbert discourse with talking heads and coping Dolphins fans saying he's in the same tier as Bryce Young or whatever and then we get to see if Joe Hortiz can go to work. They finally have some money freed up from the mistakes of the Telesco era, some players are gonna walk (Mack), some are gonna get cut (Bosa). They'll have a pick in the low 20's and a lot of room to work with. So what is the priority? 

In no order:

1. IOL. Zion-Bozeman-Pipkins have been a BAD trio in pass protection and didn't help much in the run game either. 

2. WR. You saw this game. It's clear they need a dependable outside WR. McConkey is a slot demon but they need someone with hands. 

3. TE. Will Dissley is a fine blocking tight end. He can't be TE1 and neither can Hayden Hurst or Stone Smartt. 

4. EDGE. This is gonna be a near-empty room next year and they need skill and speed to compliment Tuli. 

5. LB. I don't know what the deal is with Junior Colson but he was a no-show this year. You might think your college HC and DC coaching you in the NFL would help but apparently not. Perryman is aging and they need someone opposite Henley, who really came alive this year. 

Is there a world where Harbaugh dumps Greg Roman, Marc Trestman and co and modernizes the offense? I don't think so. The fact that they got 11 wins mid-rebuild will give them a grace year. 

Is there a world where Minter gets a HC gig this offseason? Hopefully not but what he managed to do with this defense roster was nothing short of a miracle. 

To give this season a true post-mortem, I'll sum it up in one sentence. They exceeded my expectations but, at the end of the day, they're still the same ole Chargers.