Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said “we have to address everything, and especially offensively” after his team crumbled again in a 22-6 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
The defeat moved the Chargers to 0-6 for the first time since 2000, a campaign in which they went 1-15 and Harbaugh suited up for the team in his final season as a player. The franchise has been 0-6 only one other time, in 1975, per ESPN.
The Chargers’ misery mostly lies on the offensive end this season, the first under new coordinator Mike McDaniel. After scoring a season-low six points Sunday with just 259 total yards, the Chargers lowered their 30th-ranked points-per-game average to 15.0.
When asked whether McDaniel will continue to call plays, Harbaugh said, “We’re going to look at everything.”
“The job I’m doing, it starts with me. We’ll watch this and get with our offensive coaches,” Harbaugh said. “I see the effort, I see the work being put in in the meetings, on the practice field, and to get that to translate to the field is what’s necessary. Feel bad for our players, our team, our coaches, our fans. And [offense] needs to be addressed.”
Harbaugh emphasized that the team has to figure out how to score enough points.
McDaniel is the only offensive coordinator Harbaugh has worked with in the NFL not named Greg Roman. The Chargers fired Roman in January after they put up just three points in a playoff dud against the New England Patriots. Harbaugh said then he was looking for a “head coach of the offense.”
McDaniel fit the bill. He arrived as arguably the best mind on the market, trusted with working his magic on an offense that sputtered in consecutive postseason losses. The offense has instead failed with McDaniel at the helm, hampered by injuries to the O-line and wide receiver groups.
Quarterback Justin Herberet has especially struggled. He threw another interception Sunday, his league-high eighth of the campaign. Herbert has thrown a pick in each game, and he had the worst QBR in the league heading into Week 5 at 30.2. He registered less than 100 passing yards in the first half versus the Chiefs, the third time that has happened in the first half of a game this season.
“I don’t know,” Herbert said on what hasn’t clicked for him in this offense so far. “If I had the answers, then we’d definitely be having a different conversation.”
Harbaugh tried his best to explain what he saw from his quarterback Sunday, saying Herbert “didn’t have a lot of chances” and did everything he could possibly do. However, the coach again mentioned that what the Chargers are doing in preparation is not showing up during games.
“Just one of the things that’s not translating from meetings, practice to the game,” Harbaugh said. “Our run game, our passing game, our short-yardage game. Being able to move the ball and score points, whether that’s in the red zone or if we have the ball at the 1 or the 40 or the 50. What’s not translating? How do we get it to translate?”
Questions around McDaniel’s job status have come up before Sunday.
Harbaugh said following a Week 4 loss to the Seattle Seahawks that McDaniel’s job was “not in jeopardy.” Four days later, McDaniel said calls for his firing come “with the territory.”
On Thursday, McDaniel was asked whether he believes he’s coaching for his job. He said it is central to his role to always feel that way, and McDaniel expressed confidence in the players.
“I think that the improvement that I see before the results generally lead to good things,” he said. “But talk is cheap. We got to do.”
The Chargers didn’t do it again days later.
Injuries could be one reason. The team has started eight different unique offensive line combinations, according to ESPN Research, with nine different linemen starting at least one game. For the second consecutive week, Los Angeles had four rookies get the start on the line.
Wide receiver Ladd McConkey returned Sunday after dealing with a foot injury only to be ruled out in the second quarter because of a concussion. The only other wideouts to see action were second-year player KeAndre Lambert-Smith, 2023 first-round pick Quentin Johnston, Theo Wease Jr., and Derius Davis.
Harbaugh, though, isn’t one to make excuses.
“There’s no justification. Anything I would say would sound like an excuse. I’m opposed to that to the core and pointing fingers because I believe this is a team game,” he said. “But definitely offensively, we need to evaluate and we need to look at it all — everything we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
Herbert continues to emphasize watching film and moving forward.
But at 0-6 with no answers found so far, how do the Chargers actually figure it out?
“I guess that’s a conversation that we’ll have to have and do what we can to get better and keep working forward,” Herbert said.
Culled from ESPN
