The LA Chargers dropped to 1-2 on the season with a loss to the Carolina Panthers.
The LA Chargers lost to the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 by a score of 21-16. While the game at times was ugly and hard to watch, it wasn’t all that bad.
Sunday’s game saw two young players who stood out among the rest.
Kyzir White
While it would be easy to start with talking about Justin Herbert’s second 300-yard passing game, there’s one player on the other side of the ball who stood out and was all over the field.
Kyzir White saw plenty of playing time during Sunday’s game, being on the field for 98% of defensive snaps because of injuries to Nick Vigil and Asmar Bilal. This resulted in the third-year player out of West Virginia leading the defense in tackles with 11. Eight of those tackles being solo while one of them being a tackle for loss.
White and the defense alone had an impressive outing, holding the Panthers to under 100-rushing yards throughout the game. They also held the Panthers to only five field goals, three third-down conversions, and one touchdown.
In many ways, Kyzir has shown a lot of similarities to former Charger and current Patriot Adrian Phillips. The way Kyzir was able to move around and field and find the ball resembled a lot of the safety. One problem the linebacker had throughout his career and this season has been coverage.
A couple of plays during the game saw Kyzir blow coverage and even had him lined up against some receivers. As the young linebacker gets more experience, he will hopefully step up in the coverage department.
It’s also important for Kyzir to step up not only with the current injuries to the linebacking core, but what may be a thin core in the future. Denzel Perryman, Nick Vigil, Malik Jefferson, and Asmar Bilal all will hit the free-agent market after the season. This leaves White, Drue Tranquill, Kenneth Murray, and Emeke Egbule as the only players who will be on the 2021 roster.
The performance of White is exciting to see for many reasons. Not only because of how the defense has been playing so far, but for the future as well.
A young developing linebacker core of Kyzir White, Kenneth Murray, and Drue Tranquill should make fans excited for these players’ futures. With Tranquill coming off of his injury in 2021, this should make for an all-around high-flying and high-hitting core.
Justin Herbert
I know when you clicked on this article, this is the person that you were looking for. To no surprise, Justin Herbert once again was a standout for the LA Chargers.
MUST-READ: The good, bad and ugly in Week 3’s loss to Carolina
While Herbert’s performance overall wasn’t the best, once again he showed what type of player he can potentially be. Herbert became one of only three NFL quarterbacks to throw for 300-passing yards in his first two games. The young quarterback also threw for a touchdown pass and almost drove the Chargers down the field for 99 yards to complete a game-winner.
Though as I said before there were some faults in his game. Herbert finished the day with an interception which resulted in three points and fumbled twice during the game. He also made some questionable throws in tight coverage and at times seemed to force the ball. It probably didn’t help that the rookie had to throw the ball 49 times during the course of the game.
The upside of all of this being that this was only the rookies’ second-career start. Herbert throughout the game made many mental mistakes that honestly could be fixed with experience and watching over some film. Arguably, his fumbles could be a result of the poor offensive-line performance throughout the day.
Herbert showed lots of composure in the pocket and seemed to throw on the run exceptionally well, except for maybe a couple of bad throws here and there. The end of the game drive showed that Herbert can keep calm and just drive down the field during very clutch moments. Even his ability to scramble outside of the pocket and pick up yards on the ground showed up during the game.
Overall, Hebert’s first two starts with the LA Chargers could’ve been a lot worse for a rookie quarterback. Every rookie in the NFL is going to have their moments filled with mistakes.
Kyler Murray struggled a bit in his first four starts throwing as many interceptions as he did touchdowns (5). Murray has since been thriving and has shown how he could be a star in this league. Give Herbert more experience and we can see him develop as a solid starter in this league.
It sounds like Herbert will be starting next week as he and Tom Brady will face off in Tampa Bay. If Herbert and the team as a whole can minimize their mistakes, get better, and hopefully not lose anyone else to injury we could see a very close game this next week!