LA Chargers: The good, bad and ugly from loss to Carolina Panthers

The LA Chargers moved to 1-2 on the season with a 21-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

The LA Chargers are still winless at SoFi Stadium after dropping a disappointing game to the Carolina Panthers in Week 3. This was a game that the Chargers should have won and beat themselves because of their own mistakes.

They were oh-so-close to winning as well. The Chargers were a pitch from Keenan Allen to Austin Ekeler away from winning this game at the last second, but unfortunately, Ekeler was unable to hold onto the pitch and run to what would have been a wide-open endzone.

There is a lot to talk about from this game that we will cover in the coming days. For now, here is the good, the bad and the ugly. To clarify, the Chargers could have still won the game with the bad parts of this game. The ugly is what ultimately lost the game.

The good:

Justin Herbert showed up:

Yes, Justin Herbert had a bad interception that was a six-point swing in a sense as the Panthers turned what could have been a Chargers field goal into a field goal of their own at the end of the first half.

Besides that, Herbert was fantastic. He showed really good pocket presence, knew when to move the pocket around and made a lot of really tough throws with pressure in his face.

He finished the game with 330 yards and one touchdown on 35 of 49 passing. I don’t know how you look at this team and think that Tyrod Taylor is better for the offense.

Austin Ekeler was great:

Austin Ekeler was fantastic. He turned into a true outlet for Justin Herbert in this game and was really good in making guys miss and extending plays. Ekeler was really efficient on the ground, carrying it 12 times for 59 yards and a touchdown and added another 84 yards on 11 receptions.

The defense kept the LA Chargers in it:

I won’t pretend like the defense was perfect today (we will get to that later) but they did do their part in keeping this team in the game. The Panthers scored 21 points in this game and, quite frankly, probably should have scored at least 30.

The defense kept this game from going into blowout territory early on and the offense would not have even had a chance to win the game if it was not for Joey Bosa’s sack to take the Panthers out of field-goal range.