LA Chargers: Good, bad and ugly in 31-26 loss to Las Vegas Raiders

The bad:

Justin Herbert’s injury scare:

Charger fans held their breath in the fourth quarter when Justin Herbert went down with an apparent leg injury on a touchdown pass to Gabe Nabers. Luckily for the Bolts, Herbert wound up being okay and returned to the game.

However, that injury forced the team to use Tyrod Taylor on the two-point conversion and the play was lost before it even started. Taylor was stuffed on a scramble attempt and could not tie the game.

While it was not a guarantee that Herbert would score there, it definitely did hurt the outcome as the Chargers could have kicked a game-tying field goal instead of needing a touchdown to win it.

The playcalling to end the game

The LA Chargers called two straight goal line fades to end the game, the second of which was a goal line fade to the third-string tight end, Donald Parham.

I get that Parham is tall and is a fan favorite but goal line fades are not very effective as is and the Chargers decided to call two of them up in a row with the game on the line.

This is only included in the bad, not the ugly, as both incompletions were nearly catches. However, that shows just how slim the margin of error is on a goal line fade. That first fade with six seconds was fine. With one play remaining, you have to be more creative.

The Raiders called a time out, saw that the Chargers were probably running a screen to Keenan Allen on the left side and instead of throwing a new formation out there the Chargers’ idea of creativity was simply to run the same formation and throw to the third-string tight end.

You have an athletic quarterback! You have the most elusive wide receiver in the league who had a monster day! USE THEM!