LA Chargers: Why Justin Herbert will outclass Tua Tagovailoa

1. The LA Chargers’ pass rush

The LA Chargers’ defense has not been great this season and most of that blame is on the linebackers in coverage as well as the secondary. The one area of the defense that has been great, though, has been the pass rush.

This is indicative of Joey Bosa playing on Sunday but all signs are pointing to him playing. He missed Week 9 as he was on concussion protocol but will return to individual work at practice on Wednesday.

That means that Tua is going to face a pass rush consisting of Bosa, Melvin Ingram and Linval Joseph, who has been really good this season, among others. The Dolphins don’t have a fantastic offensive line and the Bolts should be able to get pressure early and often.

That is not good for a young quarterback who is only in his third start and was not great under pressure in his first start. While the Dolphins beat the Rams in Tua’s first start, Tua himself was not great and the main reason why the pass rush by Aaron Donald and co.

Granted, the Dolphins did not really ask Tua to do much in that game but there is a reason for that. Unfortunately for Tua, he is probably going to have to do more than he did against the Rams because of the injuries to the running game.

Myles Gaskin is on the IR and Matt Brieda is banged up. The team did not run the ball that well against Arizona, which should be a relief to the Chargers. Tua is going to have to throw more and he is without his favorite target thus far, Preston Williams.

The deck is stacked against Tua in this one. Meanwhile, we can feel confident in Herbert’s performance.