Key Highlights
- Whereas the team’s defense played one of its best games of the season against a Drake Maye-led offense, giving up only one touchdown and registering two takeaways, the offense crumbled in large part because of the blocking up front. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe main victim of this was quarterback Justin Herbert, who fought tooth and nail to keep his team in the game but ultimately saw its chances succumb to a defense pressuring him at will. According to Pro Football Focus, Herbert was pressured 30 times on Sunday, including six sacks.
- That number is as high as it sounds: when we combine it with his dropback count, we can see that the Pro Bowler was under duress on 68.2% of designed passing plays. Not all of them resulted in negative plays for the offense — Herbert is a very good player despite what some narratives might end up suggesting — but the Patriots simply kept coming after him again and again and again.
- At one point, the dam had to burst, and it did in the fourth quarter when a whole regiment of defenders worked its way through an outmatched O-line for a strip-sack that pretty much put an end to Los Angeles’ hopes at a comeback. The Chargers’ offensive line issues did not just cause their passing game to falter, it also virtually erased their run game from existence.
- Kimani Vidal and Omarion Hampton combined to carry the ball 12 times for a grand total of 30 yards; a scrambling Justin Herbert was actually the team’s biggest threat on the ground and finished with 57 yards. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe longest run of the day was exemplary for the team’s issues.
- Herbert was strip-sacked on a corner blitz by Patriots defender Marcus Jones, with Vidal recovering the loose football for his team and taking off for 17 yards.
