LA Chargers: The good, bad and ugly in loss to New Orleans Saints
By Jason Reed
The LA Chargers lost another overtime game, this time to the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football.
It is getting exhausting. Another close game, another close loss for the LA Chargers. The team has gotten through its toughest stretch of the schedule, sure, but they could easily be far better than 1-4 on the season.
The sad part is that if you change one small thing about each loss then the Chargers could be 4-1 (we won’t say 5-0 since they got help in Week 1). The narrative about the team would then completely be different.
The same could be said about Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Saints, and it will be talked about in this week’s edition of the good, bad and ugly. The good things are self-explanatory, the bad are things/moments that weren’t great but can be fixed/didn’t outright cost the game, the ugly are things that represent a fundamental problem or lost the game.
The good:
Justin Herbert, Justin Herbert… Justin Herbert
This kid is good.
MUST-READ: Justin Herbert’s Week 5 game grade
I want to avoid fully buying in on Justin Herbert being some elite quarterback, but man, it is hard to see the way he has played so far in his really young career and not get excited.
There are certain quarterbacks that are mediocre out of college and those are the ones that have question marks. Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and Daniel Jones are examples. Sometimes, those quarterbacks flip the script, like Josh Allen. Other times, they simply become mediocre starting quarterbacks.
Herbert is not that. He has come into the league on fire and we can all feel safe in knowing that at the very worst he will still be a good quarterback. He set the Monday Night Football record with four touchdowns alongside 264 yards.
It isn’t like he is doing it in a perfect situation and we can question that. He is doing it while getting pressured out the wazoo and in this game, with his WR1 out for almost the entire game (and without his RB1).
Justin Jackson’s performance
Jackson, after essentially not playing all season, did step up and give the Chargers decent production at the RB1 position. He carried the ball 15 times for 71 yards while catching five passes for 23 yards. You’ll take that.
Red Zone offense:
The LA Chargers went 3-3 in the Red Zone in this game. That is something that deserves to be highlighted and is a really big positive for the team moving forward. If they can continue to be that efficient then the wins will follow.